


Remember This: I Still Love You

by FrissonSmitt



Category: Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi
Genre: Amusing, Angst, Don't worry, I like my angst, Implied Relationship, M/M, Ritsu has a daughter, Romance, Sweet, also Nao is a good friend and not overbearing, also minor appearence and suggestions of Junjou Romantica characters, and some derived text from manga, but happy too, divergant au, it'll have a happy ending, just a lot of sadness inbetween, kind of sad, minor appearence of the other characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2019-12-06 21:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18225488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrissonSmitt/pseuds/FrissonSmitt
Summary: Divergent Au - After ten years, Ritsu is still crushed from his unrequited love from his senpai in high school. With his daughter by his side, he's a single parent and life goes on. Until he gets fed up at his father's job and decides to try and make it big on his own. Transferring to Marukawa Publishing, he finds out his new boss is his old senpai. What's worse, his senpai tells him, "I will make you say that you love me one more time." Ritsu just wants to live a normal life while raising his daughter and not to find love again. Is that too much to ask?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is, well, my first story on this site. It's also the first bl story I've written. I haven't been in this fandom for very long (I discovered Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, along with Junjou Romantica, around October 2018) but I really wanted to try and write a story for my favorite couple Takano and Onodera. (This is also to help me write my own bl story in the future I have on hold as of now). So, I hope you enjoy! Also, I don't know how often this will be updated since I am busy with full-time college student, have a part-time job and have another story I'm currently trying to finish. 
> 
> The main story won't take place in first person, just the prologue and possibly the ending. I'm not a big fan of first person myself, but for the prologue it's necessary.
> 
> I appreciate everyone who reads this, thank you! Please don't be afraid to give me feedback, critiques, criticism, or advice, I could really use it!

Unrequited love is the worst type of love. 

I’m sure there’s a limit to how much unrequited love one can handle.

“How do you know my name?”

The act of confessing depends on if courage can overcome rationality. Once the cup is full, you confess your love. The moment came so suddenly that I don’t know whether it was...shock...or excitement...that had all my emotions bumbling and overflowing. 

Maybe it was a moment of insanity.

“I love you Senpai.”

»»-------------¤-------------««

Reality is crueler than it seems. He was just toying with me, he didn’t care about me. 

“Senpai,” I remember calling out all too clearly. “We are going out right?” I didn’t know what I was saying. “Because you never say anything.” Did he really love me?

“Huh?”

“Saga-senpai...Saga-senpai do you...” I shouldn’t have asked the question, but I didn’t want to keep feeling like it was unrequited love anymore. “...do you love me.”

“...Heh” 

“Huh?! He laughed at me?! What? Why?! Could it be that...” A million thoughts ran through my head after he laughed at me. I couldn’t focus on one, then it hit me, “...he was playing with me?!” 

After that, I never saw him again.

»»-------------¤-------------««

She wore a beautiful white kimono, it looked amazing on her. As we walked the path, I couldn’t help but have my mind of someone else. It was horrible, and I’m sure it wasn’t helping her either. Our parents arranged for us to be married when we were young. We were engaged at a young age. At the time I didn’t understand what that meant, so I just nodded my head, knowing my parents knew what was best for me.

In reality, they didn’t. It’s not like I didn’t like her, she was a beautiful young woman. Long, light brown wavy hair and light golden-brown eyes, with a smile that would make anyone fall in love. We’ve been friends since childhood. I didn’t have many friends growing up, I mostly stayed inside reading books. But she always found a way to keep me company. 

While we drank the ceremonial sake, I could help but wonder, why did I agree to this. She asked to be married to me as soon as we turned eighteen. Was it out of impulse? Am I trying to escape the reality I’m in right now? What’s life going to be like in the future with us? By the time my thoughts caught up with me, the ceremony was over. We were officially husband and wife.

“We’re married now,” She said with glee.

“Yes, we are” was all I could muster. I must be a masochist, I hate myself already for what’s going to happen in these future years together.

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Rittie” It had been a relatively quiet evening, I was going over some static’s for my father’s company. I was planning on being an editor there soon. Something I was excited about. 

“What is it?”

“Do you regret being married to me?” Now, that wasn’t something I was expecting her to say. We’ve been married a little over two months now. Our marriage has felt like it’s gone back to being how our friendship was. Sure, we kissed and stuff, but it didn’t exactly feel normal. I’m sure she picked up on it too. “Well, it’s just that, we may be married but it feels like it just a glorified friendship, don’t you think?”

“...” I didn’t know what to say, she was right, it did feel like a “glorified friendship.” 

“You’re still in love from that person from middle school?” I looked at her, a shocked expression rested on my face. There’s no way. He broke my heart, I can’t still possibly be in love with him, right?

Right?

“...Maybe so...” I whispered. I heard her sigh. She sat down next to me, resting her head on my shoulder.

“I want you to know that I do love you Rittie, even if we can’t have a normal marriage, I still want to be with you.” I don’t know why someone would want to be with someone else if their love isn’t going to be returned. But then again, that’s how it was with Saga-senpai... “I know how hard unrequited love is.”

“You do?”

“Of course, I love you Ritsu.” I felt wetness on my shoulder and looked down at her, I could see some tears falling from her eyes. “Even if you can’t love me the same way, I don’t want to divorce you, I want to remain husband and wife.” 

“Are you sure you want to put yourself through that?”

“Yes, I already made that decision the night I asked for us to be married after I turned eighteen. I will always love you, no matter what.”

How long will it last?

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Congratulations Onodera-san! You’re pregnant!” Huh? What was that? Did I hear the nurse right? 

“S-She pregnant?” 

“Yes! Isn’t it a wonderful thing? You and your wife are going to be parents!”

“How far along she?”

“Hmm...looks like about 5 weeks.” She’s been pregnant for over a month now? That would explain why she had been feeling sick and dizzy recently. 

We left the hospital after making her appointments for check-ups with the baby. I wouldn’t have imagined getting her pregnant or being a father for a matter of fact. Being a father...do I know how to be one? My father was always busy, so I can’t really see myself knowing how to raise a child. Still... “isn’t it a wonderful thing?” I hear the nurse’s words echo in my head. Can I give this child the loving family it deserves?

“Rittie!” I jerked and looked over at my visibly agitated wife. “Welcome back, I’ve been calling you for a few minutes.”

“Sorry.” She chuckled.

“Some things never change huh?” I looked at her weirdly, what was that supposed to mean? “Were you thinking about the baby?”

“You always can read me like a book.”

“Rittie, I hate to break it to you, but your kind of an open one.” I snorted. She’s right. I’ve been like that since as long as I can remember. But only she and someone else I rather not think about could read me like that with complete accuracy. It was scary. “Are you worried?”

“A little bit, I’m not sure whether I’ll be a good father, let alone give the baby a proper, loving family. I mean, will I even like this child myself?”

“Don’t say things like that” she brought my face towards her. “You don’t know the future, for all you know, you could be a great father! I mean, you’ve been a good husband to me up to this point.”

“Doesn’t feel like it.” Which is kind of true. We both are going through one-sided love. Mine being for someone I haven’t seen in three years, her, he’s right in front of her. Pining for someone for so long, it hurts, when will it become numb? “We’ve only been married 5 months now.” 

We married back in September of last year. It was late March by now, almost in time for my birthday. We were still eighteen, and now we’re going to have a baby by the time we are both nineteen. I can’t wrap my mind around that. My parents had me in their twenties, wasn’t I supposed to follow suit? This is so confusing.

“That doesn’t matter” she pulled me out of my thoughts. “For now, let’s just focus on telling your family about the baby, I’m sure your mother will be happy.” 

“Okay.” 

I’m worried, so very worried.

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Push!” I heard her cries of agony. Her pregnancy hadn’t been easy. She got sick often, having to stay in bed most of the time, not being able to do much. It was strange, she never really got sick. Did the baby affect her body somehow? To make matters worse, she went into premature labor, about three weeks of its due date. It was scary, she was just fine earlier today. On our way to my parent’s house, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, I decided to call the doctor. Not long after calling the hospital, she screamed that her water broke. 

“Just a little more, the baby’s head is almost out.”

“Come on, just a little more” I tried to encourage my struggling, tired wife. She didn’t look right. Her face, red but the rest of her, white as snow. Something was wrong, and I’m sure the doctor knew it too but wasn’t telling me. 

“She’s out!” She? So, our baby’s a little girl huh? One of the nurses waved me over. I could hear our babies cries for the first time, what a wonderful sound it was. The nurse handed me scissors and showed me how to properly cut her umbilical cord. Our baby, what a beautiful, fussy girl. 

My wife was sleeping soundly in the hospital bed. After cutting our baby’s cord, she was rushed to the NICU. It would be about a week before we could take her home, due to her being a preemie. It may have been a rough start, but our baby was finally here, what’s going to happen next?

“What’s on your mind?” I heard my wife say as she woke up. 

“Oh” there wasn’t really anything going through it now, well except for the shock of the baby being here, it just happened so fast. “Nothing really, well…we still haven’t figured out a name.” We wanted to wait on a name until our baby was here, we didn’t even know the gender until today. 

“We’ll figure it out.”

When she got feeling better, the nurse gave us a wheelchair, and we went to the NICU, to see our bundle of joy. Our baby had tubes and such through her, to make sure she would stay alive to develop the rest of her body. I can’t imagine what she’s going through, “hang in there” I silently prayed. 

“Look at her” I saw my wife, her eyes twinkling, “she looks like you Rittie!” 

“She definitely has your hair though.” 

“It’ll be a pain in the future, wavy hair is hard to manage sometimes. I hope she has your eyes though.”

“Why?”

“Because they're a beautiful shade of emerald green. That was the first thing I noticed about you when we were young, those green eyes of yours.” For some reason, that pulled me back to middle school. I do remember the first thing I noticed about Saga-senpai were his eyes. They were a lovely shade of hazel and those eyelashes… “Ritsu!”

“Yes?” I snapped back to reality. Gosh, I wish I would stop that. Thinking of the past is only going to make things worse for the future. 

“I was just saying what are we going to name her?”

“I don’t know…” We stared at each other what seemed like forever. Your name, something that will stick with you forever. My name means versatile, and having an expressive nature, that seemed fair. Her name, apricot, in which apricots are sweet, just like her. I want her name to be a mixture of us. Someone who is good, respectable, virtuous, sweet but stubborn. 

“Sakura.”

»»-------------¤-------------««

The week went by quick as we were able to take Onodera Sakura from the hospital. It had been almost two months since Sakura has been with us and my wife wasn’t getting any better. The doctor had explained to us that she suffered from postpartum hemorrhaging while giving birth to Sakura. They treated it and gave her some antibiotics to take. But she hadn’t got any better. In fact, she was sicker than before being pregnant with Sakura. I was worried for her. But she kept telling me she was okay. No, I would argue, she’d dismiss it. 

It didn’t take long for me to rush to the hospital, Sakura in tow. We were just going to the store, while my wife was with my mother. We were only gone a few minutes. She collapsed, what had happened to her? The nurses rushed me to her room. She had an oxygen mask on, her heart rate being monitored, and IV drip in her arm. The doctor greeted me and told me the situation.

“She doesn’t have much time left.” Excuse me?

“W-What?” The doctor explained because of her postpartum hemorrhaging, she lost a lot of blood during Sakura’s birth and her body wasn’t replenishing it fast enough. They thought they had treated it and the antibiotics would take care of the rest. They proposed a blood transfusion, but there still may be a risk that her body wasn’t going to replenish her blood in the future. She was dying. She only had a few hours left.

She held her baby for the last time. “Rittie” my eyes were red; her closing minutes were approaching fast. “hey, don’t cry for me.” 

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want my last memory here to be of you crying,” she lightly stroked my hair. “I want to leave seeing you smiling and seeing Sakura sleeping.” She handed me Sakura. I tried my best to put on a smile, but I could feel the tears coming again, my mouth starting to quiver. 

“I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” I heard a quiet laugh. “Ritsu, I want you to know that I’m so glad I got to know you. I’m glad we got married and had a baby. I wish we could’ve done more.” She slowly closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Please, do one last thing for me.”

“What is it?”

“Find love again, whether it be with your first or someone else, and don’t do it half-heartedly.” She grabbed my hand. “Take care of our daughter, I’ll be rooting for you from the other side.” Her eyes fluttering, “I love you Ritsu…” With that, her arm fell, a small smile on her face and her heart monitor flatlined. She was gone. 

“…Goodbye An…”


	2. Shoujo Manga?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter does heavily take scenes and dialogue of Chapter 1 from the manga mainly because I needed the set up for Ritsu starting his new job at Marukawa Shoten. This won't be for all the chapters, but most will still follow what's happening in the manga with slight changes and deviations here or there. It will only take off course from the manga's main story once Takano finds out Ritsu has a child. 
> 
> Also, please feel free to check out [my Tumblr!](https://frissonsmitt.tumblr.com/)

_“Senpai.”_ Stop. _“We are going out right?”_ Don’t say anything. _“Because you never say anything.”_

_“Huh?”_

_“Saga-senpai…Saga-senpai do you…”_ No! _“…do you love me?”_

_“…Heh”_

_“Huh?! He laughed at me?! What? Why? Could it be that…he was playing with me?!”_

“Wake up Papa!” Ritsu rolled onto the floor, an audible thud could be heard in the small room. He was rudely awakened from his dream, well he would consider it a nightmare. “Come on Papa! We gotta make breakfast.” His daughter Sakura, currently five years old, stated while hovering over him with a huge smile. She had light-brown wavy-ish hair and emerald colored eyes. A perfect combination of him and her mother. 

“A smile like her mother’s,” Ritsu thought as he got up. He picked up Sakura and started heading into the kitchen. “When did I become so reliant on you,” he said while tapping his daughter’s nose.

“Papa, your silly!” Sakura giggled. 

Onodera Ritsu, currently twenty-five and living comfortably, sort of, in a small two-bedroom apartment on the twelve-floor. He and his daughter were living there on their own. His wife, An, suddenly passed away five years ago, about two months after Sakura was born. It took a lot to raise Sakura mostly on his own. He wasn’t completely alone in raising her, his mother and a good friend from high school, Kiyomiya Nao, helped him raised her. But he still worried that he wasn’t giving her the loving family he had hoped to give her. 

“Papa, the eggs are burning…” Ritsu looked down to see that the eggs were indeed burning. 

“Shit!” He frantically took them from the stove. Sakura covered her ears chanting “daddy said a swear!” while Ritsu chuckled a bit. He ruffled her hair and pulled a ¥500 coin for her to put in the designated “swear jar.” She ran off to put the coin in the jar. “I guess what Nao said was true, I can’t cook worth a darn” Ritsu defeatedly thought. He glanced over at the clock. “7:30 a.m.” “Ah! Shit, hurry up Sakura, you’re going to be late for kindergarten and I’ll be late for my new job!” Sakura, again, chanting he said another swear.

Ritsu and Sakura quickly ate, got dress and headed for the public transit. It wasn’t too crowded today, which was a relief for the both of them. Luckily, Sakura’s kindergarten school wasn’t too far away from their home or where he’d start working today. He recently got a new job. He was going to be an editor, hopefully for literature. He always loved reading books, subsequentially so did his daughter. When he was first married, he planned to work for his father’s publishing company, which he was accepted into as a literature editor. But as soon as he started, he realized there was a lot of pressure from working with big-named authors, like Sumi Ryouichi and Usami Akihiko.

“Although, I don’t know if I would go back to editing Usami Akihiko’s novels” Ritsu dejectedly thought. “He was one of the most difficult people to work with…” But nonetheless, he was happy working for his father’s company. It takes a lot of time publishing hardcovers. Reaching a census with the author, consulting with them on the design of the book, “what kind of image do you want,” and “do you want it with a dust jacket? A bookmark? In what color?” He poured his heart into the making and selling of books. “I was happy, but then…”

_“This month’s best seller is another book that Onodera handled.” Ritsu peered over to see who said his name while getting some coffee one day. He started walking over to the people talking._

_“You’re kidding, again?” Ritsu heard another chime in._

_“Yeah well, he’s only here because of his parents, so he has is it really easy.” Wait a second, that’s not entirely true. Ritsu got closer to hear the conversation better._

_“Your right. We’ve been here longer, but the new-comer like him gets to work with important authors. We’ve been working so hard, but we only get to work with authors at the bottom of the barrel. It’s not fair. They’re only top-sellers because of the author anyway. All he does is send the manuscripts to the printing office, but he’s still valued for his work. It doesn’t make sense!”_

_“He’s useless!”_ His old self would’ve been too shocked to do anything. But…at the time, he felt like his worth was being called into question.

“I can make a book that sells millions on my own!” Ritsu confidently said aloud. He looked over to see his daughter, staring blankly at him. Oops, they’re still on the train to school. “Don’t worry, Papa’s just having one of his episodes.” He patted her head. Sakura nodded then giggled. 

Sakura waved goodbye to Ritsu as she giddily ran to school. He was glad Sakura wasn’t a shy child, or at least she hasn’t developed any tendencies like that yet. He remembered when he was younger, he kept himself closed off and just wanting to read books. It wasn’t until he met his senpai that he even wanted to interact so closely with another human. “No! No! No! this isn’t the time to think about someone you can’t barely remember!” That’s right, he tried so hard to forget about him. He wanted nothing to do with his senpai anymore. “It’s time to turn over a new leaf!” 

“Ah yes! Onodera Ritsu, you’re in the Shoujo Manga division!” Ritsu went straight to his new job at Marukawa Shoten. And not two minutes into the initiation, was a bombshell dropped on him.

“Wait a second! I’m being assigned to the Shoujo Manga Department?!” The lady doing the greeting nodded her head. Ritsu groaned audibly. “H-Hold on, I made it very clear during the interview that I wanted to work on literature because that’s what I did at my last job!” 

“But it says on your resume ‘Onodera-san, Employee Mid-career, is to be assigned to the Shoujo Manga Division of Marukawa Shoten.’” The lady smiled. Ritsu frantically tried to think of something. 

“A-Are you sure? Is there any way that can be changed?”

“Unfortunately, no, or at least I don’t have the power too, only the HR can.” She smiled again. Gosh, it was sickening. “Come on, I’ll take you to the editing department.” 

“This sucks!” Ritsu screamed in his mind. He specifically switched jobs so that he could work in literature. Manga huh? He doesn’t even read manga, let alone _shoujo manga_. Wasn’t shoujo manga supposed to be about romance? Oh no, he so wasn’t down for that. The lady showing him around was going off on how good the shoujo department was and how they won awards before in the past, but Ritsu brushed it aside. He was still peeved he was going into _shoujo manga!_

“…Plus, the editors are all handsome men!” That caught Ritsu's attention. Wait, all the workers in the shoujo department are guys? Okay, he’d really like to quit now but didn’t know exactly how to go about it. She went on something about pheromones at the end of a period, but Ritsu was focused on how he could get out of there. 

“I could harm myself in some way or try and say my daughter was deathly sick and use that as an excuse to quit.” Ritsu shook his head, he couldn’t use his daughter like that. “Hmm…I’ll stay for two weeks and then find a reason to quit. I can always beg my old man for my job back.” They reached the editing department, known as Emerald, and Ritsu went straight to introducing himself. “Nice to meet you. I’m going to be working with you from now on my name is Onodera…” He looked up to see, well, basically in a nutshell, death itself. 

“I’m sorry! It’s the wrong phase of the period!” Huh? What does that mean? Maybe he should’ve been paying attention to her spiel. She was right, all the editors were men, and they all looked pathetic now. Two looked absolutely exhausted and one had the creepiest smile on his face, as they laid there, none of them moving. “Well, do your best!” The lady sprinted off. Ritsu frantically looked around to try and find help, only to see others sprinting away from him. He swallowed his anxiety and walked in, covering his nose immediately. “Oh gosh, it smells like a locker room in here! I don’t know if I’ll even make it a week!” Ritsu was already going mental. 

“Hnngh…” Ritsu heard a noise as one of them peered their head. The man, who had massive bags under his eyes but look incredibly young stared blankly at him. 

“I-I’m Onodera!” Ritsu started saying frantically, “Ah, um, as of today I’ll be working here…” He really wished the earth could swallow him up right now and to give Sakura a better family to have. 

“Oh…was there someone like that coming today?” the young-looking man mumbled out. “Takano-san! Takano-san the new guys here!” the man paused, “Takano-san!” 

“Shut up!” Ritsu turned to see who this “Takano-san” was. Another man, who looked more tired than the rest glared at Ritsu. Was this the editor-in-chief? “So? Who’s this? A part-timer?”

“I’m a full-time employee!” Ritsu huffed annoyingly. 

“Your name?”

“Onodera Ritsu.” 

“Oh yeah.” Takano yawned, “That’s right I heard someone like you was coming.” What the heck? What’s “someone like you,” supposed to mean?!

“Please to meet you.”

“I wasn’t at the interview; do you have any experience in editing shoujo manga or any manga at all?”

“No, I worked as a literature editor at Onodera publishing for three years.” 

“So, you’re completely new to manga?” Ritsu nodded his head. “Useless.” 

_“This guy is the worst!”_ Before he knew it, both Ritsu and his new boss were heading to the lounge to receive a manuscript. Apparently, this manuscript was due in seven days, but some parts needed to be replaced. And the replacement parts were started on three days ago. Or at least, that’s what Takano was explaining. He went back to not really paying attention. He just wanted to find a way out of there. Before he knew it, he heard Takano say something strange. 

“…All right, I’ll show you a sample, so draw it quickly.” Draw what quickly? Maybe he should’ve been paying attention. “Draw it from an angle where you can see the chin, and add a kind of breezy feeling to it.” Hold on, what? He saw Takano get up from the table, so he started following suit. Before he knew it, Takano had grabbed his arm and kissed him. Ritsu, in a state of shock, just stood there, not exactly knowing what to do. Ritsu, his thoughts finally coming back, pulled away immediately. “Did you get that? Good now hurry up and draw it.”

“What the hell was that?” Ritsu practically screamed, rubbing his mouth.

“What do you mean? That was work.” Takano put it bluntly.

This really sucks. He made his way to the breakroom and slumped down in a chair. Man, after everything that just happened, he’d be okay with just sleeping for the rest of his life. This is definitely what he does not want to be doing. What’s worse, he quit his old job for a petty reason. “I should’ve just stuck it out with my old job. I feel like I’ve lost sight of who I am.” After everything that happened with him, his old senpai and An…he wasn’t the same as he was back in ninth grade. Sure, everyone changes with age, but Ritsu changed in a bad way. Although he doesn’t remember how he changed so drastically, he just knew from An telling him before they were married how different he was. Heck, he’d probably be worse if he didn’t have Sakura with him.

Sakura, the only thing that was keeping him sane at the moment. She was his beam of hope and kept him distracted from thinking about the harsh turmoil he faced in life. He’d give up anything for her, no matter how jaded he might come. 

“Hey.” Ritsu turned to see the editor-in-chief, who still hasn’t apologized for sexually harassing him with that kiss. He was smoking a cigarette. “You’re the heir to Onodera publishers?” 

“I’m not related to that company at all.”

“Annoyed you got assigned here when you wanted to do literature?” 

“No,” although he was thinking along the lines that he has no idea how ticked he is for not being put into the literature department. “It’s more like…I mean…isn’t shoujo manga all about love? That’s not really my thing.” He cringed when he said that. It reminded him that An wanted him to find love again even though he was sorely against it. “It’s not that I have a negative idea of it. I just really don’t understand it.” 

“If you’re going to be a burden ‘cause you don’t want to do this, then quit. I think there are lots of people in the world who can do what they like at their jobs.” Ritsu glared at him annoyingly.

“But that’s –”

“Everyone starts out as a beginner. There’s no way that your experience doing literature will be useless here.” What the…could Takano be actually encouraging him? Maybe this guy wasn’t so conceded after all. “Well, useless guys will always be useless, no matter how hard they try.”

 _“I’m going to kill him!”_ Ritsu screamed in his mind, clenching his fists. 

“Newbie, the other guys have already gone home, so you can too,” Takano said while crushing his cigarette.

“My name’s Onodera!” Ritsu proclaimed, smacking his hands on the table he was sitting at. 

“Listen. Have we met before?”

“Who knows?” He’d rather not be placed in the same group as him. Ritsu entered the office with a pile of shoujo manga that Marukawa Shoten had published. “This office is a garbage dump.” He thought to himself. “But…I can’t be deemed useless here, I must try my hardest and if I fail, then that’s my own fault. But, if I’m deemed useless before I have even started, then I can’t stand that. I’ll show him what I can do.” With that, Ritsu set to reading. 

Before he knew it, it was almost seven o’clock by the time he finished reading a few volumes. He cursed at the fact he stayed so late, Sakura would be wondering when he’d be home. He quickly left Marukawa Shoten and decided to take a taxi home rather than tango with the subway. It had been a long day for him. “I’m home.”

“Hey! Welcome back” Ritsu heard a voice coming from the living room. He walked in and saw his friend Kiyomiya Nao in the living room with Sakura watching something on the television. 

“Welcome home papa!” Sakura said, running up to hug Ritsu. “I missed you.”

“I missed you to Sakura.” Ritsu picked her up, placing his bag on the table. “Did you have fun at school?” 

“Yeah!” Sakura went on about her day at school while Ritsu heated up what Nao had cooked for him and Sakura to eat for dinner. It wasn’t long before Sakura started getting tired. She was already in her pajamas by the time he came home. Ritsu put her off to bed and sat down on the couch where Nao had been sitting and let out a sigh of defeat. 

“What’s up Ritsu? You got home later than usual today.” 

“Ah, I forgot to mention I started a new job today and I didn’t know when I was going to be home. I’m sorry for not telling you.” Nao chuckled.

“No problem sounds like you had a rough day today though.”

“Well, if figuring out that you were working in a shoujo manga department rather than a literature one, figuring out all the workers in the said department are all men, and being called useless several times, yeah I would consider it a rough day.”

“Wait, you aren’t working in literature anymore?”

“No” Ritsu groaned. “They put in shoujo manga and the editor-in-chief is an ass. Let me tell you, he called me useless and basically said I should give up now, without me even proving my worth yet. Not to mention he used me for a manga reference” Ritsu shuddered.

“Manga reference?”

“He straight up just kissed me for a reference!” Ritsu shouted out, then winced hoping he didn’t wake Sakura up. Nao covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. “Hey, don’t laugh! He sexually harassed me!”

“What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall during that. You haven’t been kissed by anyone in years. And it was a man to boot!” Nao was trying his best not to laugh louder than he already was. Ritsu smacked him behind the head. 

“Don’t you think it’s time for you to go home now?”

“Yes, I better, I have some photos I need to shoot for my next job.” Nao started packing his stuff and heading out the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow and let me know ahead of time if you’ll be late.”

“Will do! Thank you, take care.” Nao was a good friend, he graciously agreed to be Ritsu’s babysitter for Sakura. Even though he’s busy with free-lance photography, he picks Sakura up for Ritsu after school, makes dinner and cleans around the house. Ritsu was in debt to Nao for this, he greatly appreciated all he was doing for him and Sakura. “Wish my new boss could be like him too…” He shuddered at the thought of having to go back to work there. But for the sake of his pride and needing to provide for Sakura, he needed to press on. “There’s no turning back right now, I have to do my best.”


	3. Takano Is...My Old Senpai?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this done despite being really busy with finishing up my college work (in hindsight I probably should only be focusing on that at the moment but I really wanted to finish this chapter). Again, like Chapter 1, this one does reference the manga heavily, as will some of the future chapters because again, the story won't deviate from the path until Takano finds out Sakura is Ritsu's daughter. (I know I sound like a broken record, forgive me).
> 
> Get ready, this is a longer chapter!
> 
> To anyone of you who may have watched Clannad and After Story, I added a reference to Clannad: After Story, so hopefully you can spot it! Please enjoy~
> 
> (Side Note: It was really weird to keep writing Usami instead of Usagi, because that's what I'm used to saying.)

“This month’s sale ranking in the literature department…” Ritsu began to skim read the page, mumbling what it said. “ _The Box that Houses the Moon_ by Usami Akihiko!” Ritsu continued to look down the rankings and all of them were the ones he had worked on. “Yes! All the books I worked on are best sellers!” 

He picked up the books that he worked on and started grinning triumphantly. “All my hard work paid off!” Suddenly, the books he was holding turned into shoujo manga. “Huh?” He looked intently on the books, “wait these are shoujo manga…”

“Hey” Ritsu heard a gruff voice behind him. He turned to see the editor-and-chief of the Emerald Department standing behind him, looking intensely at Ritsu. “Takano-san?” Takano, without saying a word, grabbed Ritsu’s arm, pulling him closer. “Huh? What are you doing?” Takano pulled him into a kiss. Again, Ritsu didn’t have time to act or think for that matter. His eyes widened, “HUH?!” he screamed in his mind. 

Ritsu immediately bolted up out of bed, shouting. He looks around frantically, “…it was only a dream?” He brought his hand to his head. “This sucks.”

“Papa?” Ritsu looked over at his door to see a slightly frightened Sakura. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Ritsu got out of bed and patted his daughter’s wavy hair. “Papa just had a nightmare, that’s all sweetie, sorry if I scared you.” Sakura gave him a hug. He always gave Sakura hugs whenever she had nightmares, it was sweet of her to try and comfort him.

“Do you feel better?” Sakura looked up; her eyes gleaming. 

“Yes,” Ritsu hugged her back, “I feel much better.”

“Good!” She smiled delightedly.

“At least it wasn’t a dream about Senpai, but why Takano-san of all people?” Ritsu thought to himself. “No matter,” he picked Sakura up, “time to start the day.” 

It was time to start the same old routine as usual. Roll out of bed and start on breakfast. Even though Ritsu may not be able to cook most things, he can at least cook an egg. Although, half the time he burns it. Sakura helps by getting ingredients and such out of the fridge but also making sure he doesn’t burn the eggs. “See? It went a lot smoother this time.” Ritsu said, placing a plate in front of Sakura. “Not burnt, just a little overcooked this time.”

“It tastes just fine Papa!” Sakura exclaimed after taking a bite.

“You say that every time I cook something, wouldn’t you rather have Nao’s cooking for breakfast?” Sakura vehemently shook her head.

“No! I like it when you make breakfast Papa, ‘cause I get to spend the morning with you,” Sakura put her head down shyly. Ritsu stifled a laugh. He patted her head again; she was too good for him. “Papa, why do you like to pat my head so much?”

“That’s a good question,” Ritsu pondered on why he did that so much. He knew someone used to pat his head a lot when he was younger, he liked having his head patted. He thought maybe Sakura would like it too since they were alike. “Just feel like it sometimes.” Sakura giggled.

“You’re silly” She stuck her tongue out.

“No, you are” Ritsu mimicked. After breakfast is scarfed down, Ritsu helps Sakura get dressed for the day then gets ready himself. Once that’s done, Ritsu sets to putting up Sakura’s long, wavy hair in a ponytail. Though Sakura always wants her hair down but the cowlicks in her hair love to stand firm in the air, no matter how much they are brushed down. “My next day off is in three days, so if you’d like to go somewhere, we can have a daddy-daughter day.” Sakura winced at Ritsu pulling her hair into a ponytail. 

“I’d like to go to the bookstore!” Sakura said with glee. 

“Out of all the places we can go to, you want to go to the bookstore?” Sakura nodded her head, a determined look in her eye. Ritsu sighed in amusement. “Alright, we’ll go to the bookstore, I did want to get the new novel that was just released by Usami Akihiko.”

“The bear man?” Ritsu snorted. 

“Yes, ‘the bear man.’” When Ritsu still worked for Onodera Publishing, one of his authors was the well-established Usami Akihiko. On the outside to the public, he was a genuinely nice, handsome man. But behind closed doors, he was a completely different person. He was difficult, stubborn and certainly…eccentric.

Sometimes when Nao wasn’t able to babysit Sakura, during that time she was too young for Kindergarten, he’d have to bring her when he’d pick up Usami’s manuscript. In typical Usami fashion, it normally wasn’t complete yet and Ritsu would have to spend the next few hours attempting to get him to finish it before he left. Sakura would normally curl up on Usami’s couch and sleep on the huge bear that Usami owned that he dubbed “Suzuki-san.” Ritsu was glad Sakura was such an easy child. “I feel sorry for whoever is his current editor.” “All done, ready to hit the road?”

“Yeah!” Sakura giggled, raising her arm in the air.

“Sakura, say goodbye to Mama before we leave,” Ritsu pointed at the photo of An, sitting in their shrine. 

“I’ll see you when I get back” Sakura bowed her head. 

“Bye An” Ritsu whispered while looking at the photo. With that, Ritsu and Sakura were on their way. 

Ritsu dropped Sakura off at school and headed his way to work. Ritsu let out a long yawn as he entered the building of his current job, Marukawa Shoten. “I’m so sleepy, I guess reading some of those shoujo manga’s in one night is way too much.” He thought as he entered an elevator. “And also, the fact getting home late and that weird dream…” He exited the elevator and made his way to his department known as the Emerald Department. “And when I think of how I have to spend the entire day inside that garbage dump,” he clenched his fists, “my stomach is getting churned up.” Ritsu turned the corner and greeted the Emerald editors in a lackluster tone, “good morning.”

“Morning Onodera-kun!” Ritsu looked puzzled, the men that looked like they were on death row yesterday, were smiling at him? Well except for one of them. Ritsu stared for a moment, “Oh I’m sorry, I’ve come to the wrong place.” Ritsu started turning around, “The Emerald Department is – “

“Ha-ha! What’re you talking about? It’s right here isn’t it?” the young-looking man grabbed Ritsu’s arm before he could leave. Ritsu peered at the young-looking man, then at the department. There was a plethora of toys, knickknacks, it was pink everywhere, there was frills, roses, and bookshelf filled with shoujo manga. Ritsu rubbed his eyes, he must still be in that weird dream from earlier, was this really the Emerald Department? “We’re so sorry for neglecting you yesterday.” The young-looking man sat in a chair, “we’re finished with the dead manuscripts, so everything’s fine now!” he explained. 

“I heard this is your first-time editing manga.” The man, who had the creepy smile yesterday chimed in. “But don’t worry, we’ll teach you everything! My name is Mino Kanade.”

“I’m Kisa Shouta, and behind me is Hatori Yoshiyuki! And you already know Takano-san.” The young-looking man, known as Kisa, explained. “Welcome to the Emerald Department!” 

“Ah, please excuse me, I need to use the restroom,” Ritsu backed up and ran out of the department. He grabbed a random by-passer, who yelled to let him go since he wasn’t a part of their department. He brought the random by-passer into the restroom. “I’m sorry, but my eyesight should be good, but what the hell was that?”

“Huh?” the confused by-passer asked. 

“If I remember correctly, that place was a dump yesterday. But today it’s spotless. That part is great, but what I don’t understand is how all the zombies turned into a bunch of energetic men? Exactly what is that freakishly pink editing office?!” Ritsu frantically questioned.

“Oh, that’s because they’ve reached the end of the period.” 

“Period, what’s that?” Ritsu vaguely remembered someone mentioning the same thing yesterday, along with pheromones? He couldn’t exactly pinpoint who though.

“You know about the twenty-day Japanese radish, right? The ones you can harvest twenty-days after planting the seed. They’re just like that.” Ritsu looked puzzled, how the heck is that like a twenty-day radish? “They can usually create a book within a twenty-day cycle. It goes like this: they check the plot, check the outline, check the rough sketch, get the manuscript, which I heard can take a while, then blueprint and finish proofreading. Once it’s sent off to the printers, they emerge refreshed.” That explanation didn’t really help that much, Ritsu guessed apart of getting the manuscript wasn’t showering or getting enough sleep?

“And the editing department is pink because?”

“It’s like the saying ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Takano-san’s policy is to have editors start by familiarizing themselves with the environment so they can understand young woman’s feelings. It’s proven to be successful; they’ve created a few legends.”

“Legends? Such as?”

“D-Don’t make me say it” the by-passer started to fidget. “Good luck in the department.” The by-passer fled from the restroom just to come back and say, “just so you know everyone calls those guys the ‘Maiden Department.’” 

“M-Maiden?!” Ritsu dejectedly walked back to the Emerald Department. 

“Hi~” “Hiya~” Ritsu heard both Kisa and Mino say. He took a seat and sighed. “It’s going to be a long day; I might want to just quit now while I still have my dignity,” he thought. 

Mino and Kisa went to showing Ritsu how photo-typesetting worked for manga. They also showed how to stay in-between the lines, so the page doesn’t get messed up. Ritsu stared at the example he was shown. “Is something wrong?” he heard Mino say. 

“Ah no, I’m just wondering if this author was running out of time or something.” 

“Huh? Why?”

“The two-page spread here is all white, and this frame here only uses tones with the words written directly on top.” He looked at it more carefully, “it’s almost as if…she omitted –”

“You fool!” Mino stepped out of the way as Takano through a metal ruler at Ritsu. Ritsu suddenly felt a sharp pain on the top of his head.

“W-What are you doing?!” Ritsu shouted.

“That’s what we call the maiden’s ‘heart-grabbing frame!’” Takano yelled back. “This is the scene where the main character and her partner finally confess their feelings for each other after refusing to give in for so long. It’s easier for the reader to sympathize with the heroine when it’s told in first person. That’s why it’s important to let the reader know that ‘it’s coming, it’s coming,’ and let them anticipate the scene. For example, we can enlarge the text to ramp up the anticipation. And when our readers are at the edge of their seats, we strike, in one fell swoop.”

“Do you understand the feeling?!” Both Kisa and Mino inquired.

“Not one bit” Ritsu disagreed. “No, I understand what they’re trying to say. Besides, I know it’s just manga, but how can the main character achieve happiness so easily?” Ritsu sighed, he looked at his phone to check the time. A photo of An holding Sakura as a baby lighted up on his phone. “Is the reason why I think reality’s so harsh…is because I’ve never been in a real relationship?” Ritsu was pulled out of his thoughts when someone started ruffling his hair. He looked up to see it was Takano.

“You know,” Takano started saying while still ruffling Ritsu’s hair, “I really feel like we’ve met somewhere before, but I can’t recall where.” Ritsu swatted Takano’s hand away.

“Don’t touch me like that” Ritsu thought. “Well, we do live in the same town and have been working in the same industry, so I’m sure there were times we passed each other by chance.”

“Yeah…” Ritsu noticed Takano didn’t sound like he was satisfied with that answer. “You’re right. Maybe that’s it.” Ritsu went back to looking at some of the manga he left on the desk from the night before along with the Marukawa Shoten’s catalog. He started flipping through, skimming some of the titles.

“Huh? Ricchan, what are you planning to do with our company’s manga catalog?”

“Ricchan?” “Oh, since this is my first time working with manga, I was thinking about memorizing all the manga our company published.”

“For real?! You realize that our company has published thousands of books, right?” Kisa screeched. 

“Well, I’m planning to read all of them, not just memorize their titles so I’m sure I’ll be fine.” “There might be some Sakura could possibly read too,” Ritsu thought.

“Holy crap! There’s no way I could do that.”

“Oh, but I…” Ritsu looked fondly at the catalog list, “…used to read all the books at my school when I was a student. It was my hobby.” Takano whipped his head around, his eyes widened. He stared at Ritsu for a moment, which made Ritsu a little uncomfortable. “What is it?”

“…Nothing…” 

“What’s with him?” Ritsu contemplated. “He must be thinking that it’s normal to memorize the names of the products or something. I don’t expect praise. It’s a big handicap for me to be a manga editor when I don’t read manga myself, and I’m fully aware that I must develop my skills. I think this is better than doing nothing. I don’t want people to think I’m useless…”

“…Especially Takano-san.”

Three days had passed and Ritsu was getting the hang of manga, only by a little bit though. “When can you get it done? You don’t know? What the hell? Do you have any idea how much we have to fight with the printing agency to push back the deadline?!” Takano was already in full swing, arguing with one of the authors. 

“I get it now.” Ritsu had an epiphany, “this is the so-called ‘period.’” The rest of the editors were slumped at their desks, already looking dead to the world. “At least I have tomorrow off, it’ll be nice to spend time with Sakura after all that’s happened this week.” 

“Onodera come with me. We’re going to that idiotic author’s place.” Takano furiously said. 

“Right now?”

“Grab the last 12 sheets of the manuscript, we’ll do the photo-typesetting there. And bring a cutter too, we’ll probably end up fixing the tones there.”

“Huh? But I can’t do that yet.” 

“You’re the only one who’s free right now.” Takano snapped back, “take care of things here!” he yelled at the rest of the dying editors.

“Y-Y-Yes s-sir” a very shaky voice, probably Kisa, replied. 

Takano and Onodera made their way to the author in questions home. When they entered, they were met with a depressing atmosphere, like the very one in the Emerald Department now. “Here as well. Why do all the people involved in the world of manga seem to have such short lifespans?” 

“Ta-Takano-san” the author croaked out. She was crying and looked quite nervous when Takano busted the door open.

“If you can cry out of guilt, why don’t you meet your freaking deadline?!” Takano started to shout.

“I can’t do it and that’s it, damn it!” The author argued back.

“How dare you talk back to me! I should strike you where you stand!” Takano picked up a part of the author’s manuscript. “You should never draw something like the Nikko Toshogu Shrine for a whopping two page spread then submit it as the final blueprint!” 

“It’s better than the Sanjusangendo isn’t it?!” She retorted. 

“Would the two of you just shut up and get to work already?!” the author’s assistants shouted at both of the arguing adults. Ritsu was just standing by watching this all unfold. Takano and the author continued to bicker. 

“Say is this manga interesting?” Ritsu looked at the author. “Can I still fix it now? I don’t even know anymore whether or not the things I draw are interesting.” 

“It’s too late to worry about that, stupid.” 

“Hey! See she’s getting really nervous, read the atmosphere for goodness sake Takano-san!” Ritsu argued in his head. 

“Don’t waste calories doing useless things.” 

“Excuse me,” Ritsu butted in. “I bought your latest book.” The author looked at him with confusion. Ritsu quickly collected his thoughts, he spoke out of turn again, sometimes he couldn’t help himself and he would just blurt out what he felt. “I mean…Um, I just joined the manga editing department, so I’m currently reading the books my company has published one by one. But even as a guy, I think your works are interesting. I heard your latest book was published this month, so I bought it.”

“You actually used your salary form Marukawa to give money back to them…what are you thinking?” Takano questioned. Ritsu stood still for a minute and turned at him. “You only realized that just now?” 

“I’m such an idiot, I only wanted to cheer her up, and yet…” Ritsu’s face turned red from embarrassment. “No, I mean, I really think your manga is interesting, so I think you should just work harder…or something like that…” Ritsu sighed, “the one who can’t read the atmosphere is me” he dejectedly concluded. 

“So even the new guy can say such things.” Takano came over and patted Ritsu’s shoulder. “Have I ever made a mistake when I say something is interesting?” The author shook her head. “Besides, I’ve already spoken with the printing agency, and they’ve pushed the deadline back to tomorrow morning.” 

“Ah, so Takano did have a plan, so I really did speak out of turn, he gave her time to let her finish her drawings flawlessly. I guess it’s time to get to work.” 

Takano and Ritsu spend the whole night up until morning to get the manuscript finished. They arrived back at Marukawa at around 5:00 a.m. “I didn’t know that the morning sun could be so harsh.” Ritsu sat on the breakroom’s couch and groaned. 

“You worked hard; you really helped a lot.” Ritsu looked at Takano in confusion. “She doesn’t usually get that hysterical, but things were really rushed this time so maybe she got confused. She seemed to have recovered after you cheered her up.” Takano took a seat next to him on the couch.

“Ah no…” Ritsu looked ahead, “I’m really sorry about that. I wish I could have said more encouraging things, but I always end up blurting out whatever is on my mind when the time calls for it.” 

“Blurting out, huh…” Ritsu again looked at Takano with confusion. Takano handed him some coffee to drink, “good work.” Takano smiled, Ritsu felt his heartthrob. 

“So even he can smile,” Ritsu’s face turned red, “why is my heart pounding?” 

“It’s good to be straightforward, I think saying things like ‘I really think your manga is interesting,’ is really encouraging.”

“If that’s true then I’m relieved…” “Maybe I should change my opinion of Takano-san. He has the ability to bring out an author’s full potential, create something good with them, and sell the books.” Ritsu stole a glance at Takano, “…that’s something I’ve always dreamed of doing.” Takano’s eyes shifted towards Ritsu, his face heating up again in the process. Ritsu quickly looked away, his heart throbbing again. “Am I an idiot? Why is my heart pounding?!” He cursed himself for getting worked up, “he’s a guy!” He clenched his fists, “be it a guy or girl, I’ve decided never to fall in love again…despite what An wished of me.”

“You’re still the same.” 

“Huh?” Ritsu cocked his head, “what do you mean?” Takano’s eyes widened. 

“You don’t remember me?” Takano asked in a whisper. 

“…” Ritsu looked around for a moment, “um…you said that before, but I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. This is the first time meeting you.” Suddenly, Takano pinned Ritsu down on the couch. “Wha…What are you doing?!” 

“Maybe you’ll remember if I do this?”

“What?” Do what exactly? Ritsu had no idea what Takano was planning. He didn’t have a chance to get away before Takano placed his hands on Ritsu to pull them into a kiss. Ritsu shocked tried kicking Takano off him. He managed to for a moment, “Takano-san? What? Taka –” he was cut off at Takano grabbing his shoulders and kissing him again, a lot more forcefully than last time. Ritsu managed to kick him off. “Please stop joking around, I’m a man, you know?!” 

“Joke?” Takano clicked his tongue, “the atmosphere surrounding you has changed quite a bit, but you’re still as straight-forward as ever.” Ritsu stared at Takano, a blank expression rested on his face. “You said that you loved me, right?” Takano got up from the couch, “it must be nice to be you. I can’t believe you dumped me and then forgot all about it.” 

“What? Dumped?” What was Takano going on about, it didn’t make any sense. 

“I’m going to the printing agency try to remember it in the meantime.” Takano rattled the door of the break room, turning around he said, “my parents got divorced when I was a senior in high school, so my family named changed.” He started walking off, “my old name was Saga Masamune.” 

Saga…Masamune…

Saga…

“…Saga-senpai…”


	4. A Day Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I had a lot of fun writing the conversation between Ritsu and Takano at their apartments and a conversation with Ritsu and Kisa. Also, for some who have not read the manga, there is a bit of a spoiler I guess? It has to do with Mino, he does have a son named Yamato. In all honesty before getting up to the part in the manga with Mino and Yamato, I thought Mino was a creep or something. But my opinion has changed since that part in the manga. With his part in this chapter, I need him to set something up that will happen later. And for the book Sakura wants to get, I just looked up a list of popular children's books in Japan, and the one I used was like the first one on the list.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

“My parents got divorced when I was a senior in high school, so my family named changed.” Takano started walking off, “my old name was Saga Masamune.” 

Saga…Masamune…

Saga…

_“Senpai”_

Saga…

_“We're going out, right?”_

_“Huh?”_

_“Because senpai, you never say anything…Saga-senpai, do you…do you love me?”_

_“Heh”_

_“H-He laughed at me?! What? Why? Could it be that…he was just playing with me?!”_

The memories of high school came flooding back like a crashing tidal wave. Takano is Saga, Takano is the man who screwed him over, literally and physically. He ran after Takano, “wait up Saga!” He chased after Takano, “Saga!” he shook his head, “I mean Takano!” Ritsu frantically went after Takano, a million thoughts racing through his head. “Takano is Saga, my first love, whose very existence I tried so hard to erase from my memories. Why did I have to meet him again here? And why does he have to be my superior?” He finally caught up with Takano, “Wait up! Don’t just say whatever you please and then run away. How dare you just announce yourself in front of me like that without a shred of remorse?” Ritsu’s voice was getting more agitated by the moment, “after doing such a horrible thing to me, how about apologizing huh?!” 

“Huh?” Takano had a perplexed looked on his face. “Horrible thing? Weren’t you the one who did a horrible thing?” Now Ritsu had a confused look. “Who’s the one who suddenly roundhoused kicked me from behind and then disappeared without a word the next day?” 

“Roundhouse kick? What is that supposed to mean?” 

“What the hell? It must be convenient to have a selective memory. You’re really terrible.” Ritsu got even more agitated, if anyone was terrible, it was Takano for what he did.

“You must be talking about yourself!” Ritsu barked back. “It might have been the whim of youth, but I-I was actually really serious about you. You led me on then threw me away!”

“Excuse me? When did I do such a thing?” 

“When you laughed when I asked you how you felt about me!” 

“I don’t remember that! Anyway, that doesn’t mean anything, I was a brat in high school. If I laughed, it was probably to hide my embarrassment. So, you kicked me because you thought I was making fun of you and you’ve continued to hold a grudge against me for ten years?” Ritsu’s face turned red. “You…are an idiot.” 

_“This bastard!”_ “Y-You’re the one who was acting like an idiot!” 

“So, the mystery is finally solved, if that’s the case it’s okay for me to come on to you, right? No matter who I was with, I couldn’t forget you.” The elevator dinged and Takano stepped on. “I will make you say that you love me one more time. And in case you forget because of your ‘select memory,’ remember this decree, I still love you, so you better be prepared for it.” 

Ritsu watched as the elevators closed and saw Takano disappear without another word. Ritsu slumped to the ground for a moment. “What’s the meaning of this? Was it all a misunderstanding on my part?” He shook his head. “No way! I mean, that incident gave me such a shock that completely changed who I am as a person! Okay, maybe not completely, but most of it was due to Takano! This isn’t something that can be settled by an explanation as simple as that he was hiding his embarrassment. How could I be so careless as to not recognize him as senpai from the start? If I had recognized him, I would have quit on the spot!”

 _“I could never forget about you; I still love you.”_ Ritsu felt his heart beating faster, his face heating up more than before. “What if…what if Takano-san said is true? What if I just misunderstood everything? I wonder if senpai…really did love me? And if he still does could I fall in love with him again? Like hell that would ever happen! This isn’t like a manga, I just can’t say ‘I love you’ and expect a happy ending, that’s not how life works!” Ritsu got up and pressed the button on the elevator. “Even if he did that to hide his embarrassment, he shouldn’t have done such a misleading thing! I hate myself for getting worked up so easily over every little thing!” He started heading home, “No! This is not love! Who would fall in love with a jerk like him again!” Ritsu laughed in annoyance, “he’s gonna make me say, ‘I love you?!’ Like hell I would say that!” 

Ritsu stood in front of his apartment, passing by someone he didn’t bother really making eye contact with. “That was fast” Ritsu looked over to see who was talking to him, it was Takano of all people. “Did you come to confess your love already?” Takano asked, a smug look on his face. Ritsu felt his face heat up. 

“Huh? W-What are y-you talking about?” Ritsu stuttered out. “Besides, this is where I live.” Ritsu frantically looked for his apartment keys. “Am I stupid or what?! Why the hell is my heart pounding?!” Ritsu screamed in his mind. He grabbed hold of his keys and tried unlocking his door but dropped them. _“Pull yourself together damn it!”_

“Hey, Onodera –” Before Takano could finish, Ritsu’s apartment door swung open, without warning. Ritsu stumbled back a bit.

“Ritsu! Where the hell have you been?” Ritsu came face to face with a red-faced Nao. His arms were crossed, eyebrows furrowed, voice elevated, his eyes narrow and tired. He appeared angry. Ritsu’s seen Nao angry before, but it had been a while, it caught him off-guard. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d be out all night?”

“Onodera who –” Without thinking, Ritsu kicked his keys inside then pushed Nao back into his apartment, shutting and locking the door. “What was that all about?” Takano questioned; he was left quite puzzled. 

“Ritsu, who was that outside?”

“Never mind him,” Ritsu said, taking off his shoes and coat walking further into his apartment. He sat on his couch putting his head in his hand and let out a prolonged groan. “Today’s been an absolute mess.”

“Alright Ritsu, what’s going on?” Nao asked, his voice a little calmer. 

“I’d rather not get into it at the moment.” Ritsu glanced over at the clock, it was almost 5:45 a.m. “Sorry about not calling to tell you I wouldn’t be home. Yesterday was quite eventful and I didn’t have a chance to call.”

“It’s alright” Nao sighed, “I can’t stay mad at you.” Nao patted Ritsu’s back. “I’m going to head home, call me if you need any advice or help. You know I’m always available.”

“Thanks, Nao.” Ritsu didn’t see him out. Once Nao left, Ritsu fell on the couch. He looked up at the photo of An on the shrine. “What am I going to do?” With that thought, Ritsu drifted off to sleep. 

_“Find love again, whether it be with your first or someone else, and don’t do it half-heartedly…I’ll be rooting for you from the other side…I love you…”_

“Papa,” Ritsu shifted his position on the couch. He was still asleep. “Papa.” He could faintly hear someone calling him but opted to just keep sleeping instead of checking. It was his day off after all, he deserved to sleep in just a little. “Papa.” He heard the calling again. Ritsu cracked open his eye to see Sakura staring at him.

“S-Sakura!” Ritsu jolted back a little. Ritsu rubbed his tired eyes and yawned. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“Sorry,” Sakura put her head down. “But you’ll catch a cold if you sleep on the couch.” Ritsu chuckled a bit, ruffling her hair. 

“You’re right,” Ritsu picked Sakura up and sat her in his lap. “Good morning, did you sleep well?” 

“Papa it’s almost 2:00 p.m.” 

“What?” Ritsu peered over at the clock sitting on the coffee table. “1:45 p.m.” Ritsu jolted up off the couch along with Sakura. _“Shit!”_ Sakura covered her ears. “Sakura, why didn’t you wake me up sooner?! Have you even eaten today?!” Ritsu frantically asked, placing her on the ground. He did a quick once over, she was already out of her pajamas in a frilly dress and her hair, well, sort of brushed. 

“I ate some apples earlier that were leftover in the fridge.” 

“O-Okay, but why didn’t you wake me up sooner? The day’s almost gone!” 

“I wanted to wake you up when I got up…” Sakura put her head down again, “but I remembered how tired you looked when you got home this morning because I woke up when you did.” Sakura started fidgeting with her dress. “You’ve been coming home really late these past few days, and I didn’t want to burden you…” A few tears started rolling down her face. 

“Sakura…” Ritsu pulled her in a hug. “I know I’ve been coming home late and we haven’t had a lot of time to spend together, but don’t ever think you’re a burden, alright?” Ritsu wiped the tears off her face. “I want to spend time with you as much as you do with me, it’s just going to be a little harder now with Papa’s new job. So, you’ll have to bear with me. But don’t be afraid to tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Can we still go to the bookstore today?”

“Of course! Let’s get going!”

“Okay!” Sakura said with glee, she had stopped crying and instead had a huge smile on her face. 

Ritsu and Sakura went out to grab some breakfast, although at this time they’d be getting lunch, before going to the bookstore. Ritsu was determined to have a nice day out with Sakura after everything that happened yesterday and earlier in the morning. Learning that his new boss is Saga-senpai from high school and learning he lives right next-door threw Ritsu for a loop.  
He was still processing everything. 

They both entered a small café not too far from their apartment complex where Ritsu placed an order for them to eat. Though, Ritsu felt like he could have a panic attack from all the questions the server was asking. He felt an odd sense of déjà vu from it. But he’s always been nervous when ordering food from anywhere. “You’ve got sauce on your nose Sakura.” Ritsu wiped the sauce stuck on Sakura’s nose with a napkin. “You need to watch where you're putting your food.”

“You’ve got some on your face too Papa” Sakura pointed at his cheek. She grabbed a napkin and tried wiping it off his face, though she was too short to reach. Ritsu obliged and lowered his head so she could reach. Like father, like daughter. 

“Onodera is that you?” Ritsu looked up to see who called his name. It was that guy who’s always smiling at work, what was his name again? He also had a kid with him, who was cowering behind him. 

“Mino-san?” Ritsu said in a questioning way. Even though he’s worked at Marukawa for a week, he was still learning everyone’s names. He only really remembered who Takano and Kisa’s names were. 

“Who’s this you got with you?” Mino asked while pointing at Sakura.

“Oh, this is my daughter, Sakura” Ritsu introduced his daughter. “Sakura, this is one of my fellow associates I work with, can you say ‘hi’ to him?” 

“Hello” Sakura greeted rather shyly. 

“Aw, she’s adorable, she looks just like you,” Mino commented. Ritsu thought about how many people have said that about her and him. Sakura did seem to favor Ritsu more than An. “I didn’t know you had a daughter, I guess we’re two of a kind then.”

“So, is that little boy yours then?” 

“Yes, this is Yamato,” Mino said, placing his hand on Yamato’s head. “He’s my adoptive son from my late sister. He can be a bit of a handful at times, but we manage. Being a single father can be rough.” 

“I can understand that.” 

“It’s nice to know that there are other people at work going through the same kinds of situations, right?” Mino said with assurance. “That you’re not alone in your endeavor.”

“Are there others like that at Marukawa?”

“I believe the Shounen Department's head editor Kirishima Zen is also a single father, his daughter is quite a special girl. You should talk to him sometime.” Ritsu made a mental note of that. “We’d best get going.” 

“Ah, we should as well.” 

Ritsu and Sakura, along with Mino and Yamato made their way out of the café. They parted ways after leaving. “I should probably change my opinion of Mino-san, I guess he wasn’t the creep I was playing him out to be.” Ritsu looked down at Sakura, “ready to go to the bookstore?” 

“Yes!” 

Ritsu and Sakura made their way to Marimo Books, a local bookstore not too far away from where they lived. Upon entering, Ritsu noticed a whole flock of women standing by the register. It looked like they were all talking to a cashier about something. Ritsu thought that it was a tad strange. “What kind of book are you looking for Sakura?”

“It’s a book we read in school, I think it’s called ‘Guri and Gura.’”

“Oh, yes I know that one, we read that in my kindergarten class, let’s see if we can find it.” Ritsu went to looking for the book Sakura wanted along with the new novel released recently by Usami Akihiko. They wondered a bit through the store and found themselves in the manga section of the store. He’s never been the one for manga, even after being put into a position where he edits manga. He just didn’t really see the appeal of it. 

He curiously picked up one of the manga books. “Junai Romantica by Aikawa Yayoi.” He looked inside to quickly figure out that this was definitely something he probably shouldn’t be reading. He quickly shut the book, while trying to hide his embarrassment of the few lines he read. “Who would write this crap?” Ritsu looked down to see is Sakura had picked up anything, but he noticed she was missing. “Sakura?” Ritsu started looking around for her. “Sakura!” He started getting a little frantic. She normally doesn’t wander off by herself.

“Yes?” Sakura answered. Ritsu sighed with relief.

“Don’t go wandering off like that without telling me alright?” Sakura apologized and they continued looking for the “Guri and Gura” book. Ritsu turned a corner to see another familiar looking face. “Is that Kisa-san?” Ritsu thought. He walked over to the man, holding a magazine in front of his face. When Ritsu got closer, he noticed the man wasn’t really staring at the magazine, but something else. “How peculiar.” Ritsu couldn’t quite tell what the man was looking at, but the man’s face was noticeably red. “Kisa-san is that you?”

“Hmm?” The man hummed turning his head towards Ritsu, it was Kisa. “R-Ricchan!” Kisa screeched, quickly closing the magazine. He averted Ritsu’s gaze and stuttered a few things. “W-What are you doing here?”

“Shopping, this bookstore isn’t too far from my apartment complex. I assume you’re doing the same?” 

“Y-Yeah…” Kisa’s voice trailed as he shifted his eyes over again to the same spot he’s been staring earlier. “Something like that.”

 _“Awkward”_ Ritsu laughed. He didn’t know exactly what to do or say. Kisa started to fidget and appeared irritated at him. Ritsu’s never been good at these kinds of situations, maybe he should’ve left Kisa alone. He was suddenly pushed forward by some small force. He peered down to see Sakura clutching his leg. “Did you find the book you wanted?” Sakura nodded her head. “Ready to go then?”

“Ricchan who’s” Ritsu heard Kisa start to say. He momentarily forgot that Kisa was there. “Who’s that?”

“This is my daughter” Ritsu moved Sakura in front of him. “Can you say ‘hi,’ he’s my coworker.”

“I’m” Sakura fidgeted with her dress. “I’m Onodera Sakura” she bowed her head, “it’s nice to meet you.”

“How polite” Kisa chuckled. Kisa got down to Sakura’s level, “I’m Kisa Shouta, I sit next to your father at work. He’s a hard worker even for a newbie.” 

“I don’t know if that’s a stab or a compliment” Ritsu huffed. Sakura giggled then went back behind Ritsu. “Sorry, she’s normally not so shy.” 

“It’s alright. I’ve never been really good with kids.” Kisa got up from kneeling. “She looks just like you, even has your pretty emerald colored eyes.”

“Are you coming on to me?” Ritsu chuckled, half-joking half-serious.

“Maybe~” Ritsu gulped, he really didn’t need two people after him, one was draining enough. Kisa began to stare at Ritsu’s hand. “I don’t see a wedding ring, are you and your wife estranged?” 

“Oh n-no, An, my wife, she, uhm” Ritsu began to stutter. Ritsu didn’t exactly know how to say that his wife had died in a way that seemed appropriate. “She, uh…”

“Mama passed away before I was born” Sakura chimed in. “At least, that’s what Papa told me.” Sakura clutched onto Ritsu’s leg a little harder. Sakura never knew her mother, but Ritsu knew she had always kind of longed for one. Or at least, to have another figure, besides Nao, in her life. Ritsu internally thought that he knew he couldn’t provide that for Sakura since he was determined to never find love again. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear, that was insensitive of me to say than” Kisa profusely apologized.

“N-No it’s alright,” Ritsu began to stutter again, curse his nervous tendencies, he hasn’t changed that retrospect of his life. “An was a great wife, she and I were engaged at a young age, though I felt like we really didn’t have a spark, she believed so. We got married when she turned eighteen.” He picked Sakura up, “we had this little girl after we turned nineteen, born three weeks premature in November.” He lightly pinched her nose; Sakura stuck her tongue out. “Then An passed away two months later.” Ritsu eyes glazed over, “I do miss her, but I know she’s better now, not dealing with unrequited love” he finished his voice much lower and softer. 

“What did you say? I didn’t hear that last bit” Kisa asked curiously. Ritsu shook his head.

“It’s nothing. It’s getting late, we’d better get going, right little miss?” Sakura nodded her head. “Alright, let’s buy our books and head home.” 

Kisa followed them to the check-out where Kisa started to get fidgety again, his face turning a bit red. He had no idea what Kisa’s problem was. Did the cashier freak him out or something? The cashier, Ritsu looked to see his name was “Yukina,” looked friendly. Heck, he looked fairly handsome, sparkly even. No wonder there was a crowd of young women around him earlier when Ritsu and Sakura came in. 

They parted ways, Ritsu decided before heading home to buy some ice cream for her and him to eat once they got home. He also picked up some dinner for them to eat. They arrived home at around 5:30 p.m. After eating dinner, Ritsu put on Sakura’s favorite movie and pulled out the ice cream for them to eat. This was one of their favorite pastimes when having a daddy-daughter day. When the movie was almost over, Sakura let out a yawn. 

“Getting tired?” She nodded her head. “Well, let’s get you cleaned off and off to bed then.” Ritsu picked his daughter up and got her ready for bed. Kissing her goodnight, he turned off the lights of Sakura’s bedroom, shut the door and went back into the living room. “Today certainly was interesting.” He started mulling over what happened earlier that morning, something he had been trying to avoid while spending time with Sakura. “Takano is Saga…he broke my heart and now is trying to get back with me.” Ritsu sighed, “I really don’t want him trying to pursue love with me, but I’m not sure how I can get him off my back.” He looked over at the photo of An in their shrine. Next to the photo were Ritsu’s and An’s wedding rings. _“I don’t see a wedding ring...”_ What Kisa had said earlier came back into his mind. “Maybe…Maybe if I wear my wedding ring, I can get Takano off my case. It could potentially work right?”

What’s the harm in trying?


	5. I'm Not Avoiding You!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait on this, I decided to pause on this to finish working on a new chapter for my other fanfic. I was going to start on this chapter as soon as I got done with the other one but then something else came up. My family and I are moving! We got an acceptance on a house, but we found some problems with said house and now our house has been sold, and we've been busy with inspections and appraisals. We’ve also been prepping, packing and moving things, we’re all stressed and tired, so if I don’t update this for a while, that’s why. I’m sorry and thank you for your patience! 
> 
> Please enjoy this longer chapter!

_“Rittie” An called. She had been laying on the couch, rubbing her swollen abdomen. She was almost at full-term, the baby would be due in a month, she looked like she was ready to pop at any moment. “Come here, the baby is kicking.” Ritsu walked over, sitting down and placing his palm gently on his wife’s belly. He felt a light kick after a few moments. “Isn’t it wonderful?”_

_“Yeah.” The baby had been pretty active the past few days, An kept complaining about it kicking a lot._

_“I bet it wants to get out here and see us” An continued to rub her abdomen, “I know I want too. Wouldn’t you agree?”_

_“Yes,” Ritsu said much quieter this time._

_“Rittie,” An switched her position to be sitting next to Ritsu, “what’s wrong?”_

_“I’m just…worried about being a good father, you know? I didn’t exactly have the best example from mine growing up.” Ritsu looked down, “I wonder if I’ll…”_

_“Don’t speak of that nonsense Ritsu.” Ritsu looked up at his wife, her face stern but gentle. She placed her hand on his cheek, “yes it’ll be hard being a father, but as long as you love, take care, listen and be there for our baby, you’ll be a great father.” She smiled sweetly._

_“I hope you’re right.”_

_“Have I ever been wrong with you?”_

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Takano! What the hell were you thinking?!” It had been a relatively quiet morning. Ritsu woke up like any other day, though more nervous now then he had been a few days prior. Takano had dropped the news and was afraid he’d try something to Ritsu the next time he’d go to work. But nothing came up, probably because they were knee deep into getting their manuscripts finished. But it still didn’t help Ritsu feeling nervous every morning. He opted to call in sick that morning, but he’d fear Takano might try and barge in seeing as they lived right next door and they just finished a cycle at work. No, he got up, fixed breakfast for both him and Sakura and tried not to think about what might happen when he first got into work. Instead, he’d focus on getting Sakura to school. Which reminded him about something he had in his coat pocket. 

_“Ready for school?”_

_“Yup, I’m all set – wait I forgot something!” Sakura quickly went back into her room. Ritsu chuckled and looked over at the photo of An in the shrine. He then peered at his and An’s wedding rings. He walked over and picked his up. It had been a long five years since he’s worn his. He wondered maybe if he wore this to work Takano might back off. It wouldn’t hurt to try right? He started putting it on his left finger – “Okay! I’m ready to go,” Sakura came up from behind startling Ritsu making him fumble and drop the ring. “Papa, what are you doing?”_

_“N-Nothing!” Ritsu quickly picked his ring off the floor and slipped it into his coat pocket. “L-Let’s go before the train gets crowded!”_

“This is the first print run!” The tall, muted blue-hair and eye-colored man yelling at Takano at the moment had barged into their office without warning. Ritsu didn’t even know who this guy was or what his deal was. “And it sold out in one day!” Ritsu had just sat down and got to work when this man came in, cursing up a storm. “Even if we order a second run immediately, it’ll take ten days for it to be ready! What the hell are we going to do in the meantime?!” 

“It was your bright idea to order a smaller print run, wasn’t it?!” Takano barked back.

“What?”

“You forgot that I wanted to order more than thirty thousand copies! It was your superiors who shot that particular idea down!” Takano argued, getting up from his seat, coming face to face with the other irate man. “Take it up with them, not me!” 

“Mino-san,” Ritsu whispered the Mino, who was picking up manuscripts off the table, “did Takano-san do something wrong?”

“Hmm?” 

“They’re talking about this month’s book, right? They did say that it would take some time to get a second print run, but if the book’s selling beyond expectations…isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes, but you lose time between now and the reprint. During that time, you will lose sales.” Mino got closer to Ritsu, “actually, the editing team requested a larger printing at the initial meeting, but the higher-ups of the sales team vetoed it. Takano-san fought really hard, but in the end, they ignored him.” 

“I’m saying, use your head! Use your head!” Ritsu looked over to see the two men still feuding. Seems Takano wasn’t getting through to the other irritated man. 

“You’re one to talk!” They continued, in all honesty, it was starting to sound like children bickering over some trivial matter. Somehow, it was slightly amusing. 

“And when it was actually show time, the printing was way too small.” Mino continued.

“Ah yes, I guess the editorial staff alone can’t decide the size of the printing.” Ritsu again looked at the two men still arguing up a storm. “So, who’s he then? Someone from production?” 

“Nah, that’s Marukawa Publishing’s famously grumpy bear, the wild horse from the financial department,” Mino chuckled, “he’s –”

“Yokozawa” Ritsu jolted in his seat. The man, Yokozawa, was standing behind them. Mino scurried off, mumbling that he must have heard them. Ritsu took a good look at this man, from a distance, he didn’t look that scary. But, his demeanor at the moment, downright terrifying. Just how much of a furrow can one man have? “Who the hell are you? I’ve never seen you before.”

“Oh, right! How rude of me!” Ritsu got up from his chair and bowed, “my name’s Onodera Ritsu. I started working here a little over two weeks ago. Please bear with me while I’m getting used to things. I look forward to working with you.” 

“Onodera?” Yokozawa cocked his head, “I see…” Ritsu looked at him in confusion. “So, you’re the one who’s riding on his father’s coattails. You’re the only son of Onodera Publishing’s president, right?” Ritsu froze, damn nepotism. 

“Anyway, Takano, just try and avoid a similar screw up in the future.” With that, Yokozawa left the editorial department. 

“You better make sure your boss isn’t so incompetent first” Takano commented as Yokozawa was leaving. 

“What the hell? Why did he have to humiliate me in front of all those people?” Ritsu thought while still standing in his spot, frozen. " _We just met!_ ”

“Onodera, don’t let him get to you.” Ritsu broke out of his trance to turn to Takano, “in my opinion, nepotism isn’t such a big deal. In the world we live in, you need all the help you can get.”

“That’s right, there’s nothing wrong with having a good background” Hatori chimed in.

“Yeah, you can always try to one-up your father and make it big yourself!” Kisa threw in. 

“People have got to make use of every advantage they can.” Mino also added.

“Everyone’s shadowing their support of me” Ritsu kindly thought. It warmed his heart to see that his fellow Emerald co-workers had his back. “Thank you so much! I –”

“Although…” Takano started, in which everyone chimed in saying, “if you fail anyway, you’re no better than trash.” 

“I am so quitting” Ritsu started repeating in his mind as he took a seat, already ready for the day to be over, and it wasn’t even noon yet. “Oh right,” Ritsu looked at the package on his desk, “I need to mail this today…” He got up from his desk, taking the closed package and heading to the elevator. “After I do that then…” After pressing the close door button, a hand reached out to grab the elevator door. 

“Wait a minute, I’m getting on too.” That hand happened to belong to Takano. Startled, Ritsu frantically looked around the elevator. He wasn’t ready to be alone with Takano, in an enclosed area, especially now that things are settled at work. 

“Uh, I, uhm, I forgot something!” Ritsu frantically got off the elevator and heard Takano call out to him as the doors closed. Ritsu sighed, “I wonder if that was a bit too obvious…” He really didn’t want to be alone with him for even a second. After all, Takano and him dated for a little while ten years ago. “Even though we’re both guys…” Ritsu started heading back to the Emerald Department. “No, even though it messed me up pretty badly, we weren’t exactly dating. I was the only one who was serious about it.” Ritsu looked down at the floor, “it was just a huge joke to Takano-san.” But the notion had been bothering him lately, Takano did tell him that he didn’t lead him on just to throw him away. But he honestly couldn’t remember it all that clearly. A lot of things happened after that, he studied abroad in England, he had gotten married, had a child and now was a single father. “Still, I’m surprised at myself. I never thought I’d be someone who could forget his first love like that.” Ritsu shook his head and entered back into the office, taking a seat at his desk. “No, that’s not it either. I guess I made myself forget precisely because he was my first love. It wouldn’t surprise me because the whole thing was such a huge shock back then. And then there’s what he said to me after we met again…”

_“I’ll make you say that you love me one more time. I could never forget you; I still love you.”_

“No way! No Way! No freakin’ way!” Ritsu clenched the loose papers at his desk. “I’m a changed man! I have a daughter and other things, and what does he mean, ‘I’ll make you say it?’ Who does he think he is?!” 

“Ricchan are you okay?” Kisa asked.

“Don’t worry about me” Ritsu chuckled. “Anyway, I just have to avoid all non-work contact with him.” Ritsu went back to his thoughts, “That’s right! Just stay focused on the job.” How hard could that be? Ritsu peered at his calendar. “Wait a minute, I wonder if Mutou-sensei’s finished the storyboard. It’s been five days since her deadline. If she’s late, something must be up…” “Hatori-san? Does Mutou-sensei usually keep to her deadlines?” 

“Huh?”

“She’s a little late turning in her storyboard, so I thought I’d ask you since you were working with her before. I was wondering if you knew.” 

“She’s usually not too bad about missing the deadline, but sometimes when she gets writer’s block and gets depressed, it takes a while for her to come back.” Hatori explained, “it’s a good idea to call her frequently and ask how she’s doing.”

“Got it.” He picked up the phone and started calling his mangaka. “This is the first time I’ve been put in charge of a mangaka,” he thought as the phone rang. “That’s not to say I’m unfamiliar with the process itself. I was in charge of quite a few writers when I worked at Onodera Publishing. There’s just one major difference between novels and manga: manga has drawings. In addition to the plot, there’s also the storyboard.” 

“Yes?” The other line picked up.

“I’m sorry for bothering you. This is Onodera from Marukawa Publishing. I was just calling to check up on the storyboard.”

“O-Oh, I’m sorry. It’s not done yet. I’ve still got about ten more pages to go.” 

“I see. If you’re stuck, I’d be happy to discuss it with you.” As he continued to talk with Mutou-sensei, he remembered something Takano had said to him previously. Takano said that it’s the storyboard that best displays a manga artist’s sense for telling a story. Same goes for the editor’s sense as well. Before working at Emerald, he had never seen a storyboard before. Takano had placed a whole load of the old storyboard of manga Marukawa previously published and tasked Ritsu to read all of them. Ritsu wasn’t pleased with the fact he had to read so many, but he got it done within a few nights, having to completely ignore sleeping just so he could start working with an author. Was it worth it to prove Takano his worth? Well, it’s hard for a sleep-deprived Ritsu to say. “If you finish it on the weekend, you can fax it to my house. Good luck, thank you.” 

“Is everything alright?” Hatori asked. 

“Yes, it should be fine.” “I’m more worried about myself. I wonder if I’ll know how to do all the corrections I’m supposed to do? Maybe I should get other people to read the storyboard too? That might work. But should I really talk to the others? This assignment is supposed to test my skills as an editor after all.” He got caught up in his thoughts when he looked over to see Takano had come back. Takano shot him an annoyed glance, Ritsu quickly avoided his gaze. 

“Hello, you’ve reached the Emerald Editing Team” Ritsu heard Hatori say, “yes, thank you, just a moment.” Hatori held the phone out towards Takano, “Takano-san, Yokozawa-san’s on the line for you. He wants you to go out drinking with him tonight.”

“Tell him I said no.”

“Please do that yourself.” 

“Yokozawa-san, huh?” Ritsu pondered, “he’s that rude man from finance who was here before, right? I don’t get it. They had a screaming match and yet they’re going out for drinks?” 

“Please just take the phone. I don’t want him to blame me for you saying no,” Hatori again extended the phone towards Takano. 

“Dealing with him is such a drag, so no thanks” Takano responded, walking passed Hatori, ignoring the phone. 

“Jeez…” Ritsu sighed, “why am I bothered by that?! Just focus on your work!” Ritsu got up from his desk, putting on his coat and scarf. “That’s right! None of this is any of my business!” 

He stood in front of the elevator ready to leave work. Elevator opened, and Kisa stepped out of it. “Oh Ricchan, are you heading home?” 

“Yes, I’m waiting for a storyboard and have to relieve my friend who’s watching Sakura for me, so I’m leaving early.” 

“Okay ~ See you tomorrow!” 

“I hope everything turns out okay with the storyboard.” He stepped off the elevator and noticed Takano standing around that guy from earlier, Yokozawa. Ritsu hid behind a hallway. “Wha-What are they talking about in the middle of the hall? I really don’t want to walk past them.” He peered over the corner, “I thought they didn’t get along? Or wait, are they fighting again? No, wait…” Ritsu’s eyes widened, Takano just laughed. He felt his chest ache for a mere moment. Takano’s laughing? He doesn’t usually do that. He felt his chest get tighter. His face turned a little red. “I have to go…” Ritsu walked right past them, trying to ignore them. 

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to say something to your superior when you leave?” Takano bitterly stated.

“I will see you tomorrow.” Ritsu didn’t look up. He didn’t want Takano to see him like that. He walked out of the building, only to notice Takano had followed him out. He heard Yokozawa and Takano’s backtalking, something about keeping the 3rd open? He also heard something about Yokozawa being over at Takano’s later tonight. “What the hell? They were at each other’s throats this morning. What are they to each other?

“So, don’t go to bed before I get there! Got it? Masamune!” 

“He just called Takano-san by his first name.” Ritsu started walking faster, “so-so what?! It’s got nothing to do with me if somebody decided to call someone else by their first name. Besides, Takano-san is just my boss, nothing else.” Ritsu stopped for a moment, his heart aching a little. “Precisely, what he does with Yokozawa-san has got nothing to do with me.” 

“Due to an accident, the line was delayed, and it might be more crowded than usual. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our riders.”

“Um, could you stop following me? What do you want anyway?!” Ritsu asked while being pressed against the door of the subway. Takano just so happened to be standing right in front of him. 

“Can’t a man go home?”

“ _Crap, I forgot that we’re neighbors! I forgot because I’ve been avoiding him so much!_ ” He turned to avoid Takano’s face.

“Steamy. It’s too crowded.”

“Huh?”

“I said, it sure is hot, isn’t it?” 

“You think so? I feel fine.” Ritsu really wished Takano would stop talking to him. Just four more stations to go. 

“How are you doing with the mangaka you’re supervising? Mutou-san?” 

“What about her?” Please stop talking!

“Why are you trying so hard to avoid me?” Takano got closer to whisper in Ritsu’s ear. Ritsu’s heart rate skyrocketed as he gulped. Crap, so Takano did notice he was avoiding him. 

“W-What’re you talking about? I’m not avoiding you at all.” 

“Liar, it’s obvious that you make sure to never be alone with me.” 

“I think you're imagining it. Why would I need to avoid you?” Ritsu was trying to keep his cool. Although, he was never really good at lying before. 

“Maybe because I make you feel self-conscious?” Takano leaned even closer. 

“What are you talking about?!” Ritsu turned his head, facing Takano, his face a little flushed. The subway rattled and Ritsu lost his balance. 

“Sharp turn. Please be careful.” Ritsu looked up to see Takano had caught him before he fell. His face heated up, turning a darker shade of red. He could now feel the heat Takano was talking about earlier. 

“Are you okay?” Takano asked.

“Yes, sorry about that.” Ritsu got his balance back and got off Takano. “What the hell am I doing, leaning against him?!” Ritsu’s heart started beating faster. He starred out the window of the subway door. He could see Takano’s reflection as well. “He’s looking at me.” Ritsu placed his hands in his pocket and noticed something was missing. His eyes widened. “My ring.” His ring wasn’t in his pocket anymore. He started feeling frantically for it. “M-My ring! W-W-Where’s my ring?!” He started to panic a bit. Ritsu started looking down at the ground to look for it. Takano watched Ritsu and also looked at the ground. Takano noticed something on the ground at his feet.

“What’s this?” Takano said, picking up the small, circular object. 

“T-That’s...!!” Ritsu started to say, but the subway doors opening, they reached their stop. People started flowing out like a rapid wave. Ritsu and Takano stepped off the subway as well. 

“What were you saying?” Ritsu quickly snatched his wedding ring out of Takano’s hand. He let out a huge sigh of relief. He had his ring back; he shouldn’t have put it in his pocket in the first place. He didn’t know what he’d do if he lost his wedding ring, it’s one of the only few mementos he has left of An. “Rude.”

“S-Sorry Takano-san.” Ritsu placed the ring back in his pocket. “It’s my ring…um, from…” Ritsu tried looking for an answer but wasn’t really coming up with anything. “My…girlfriend?”

“That wasn’t very convincing.” 

“W-Well, believe what you want, but really it’s from m-my girlfriend.” Ritsu felt disgusted saying that. It was like he was defiling An’s death. Why is he lying? He should just tell him the truth! “See you.” Ritsu sprinted off. “Stupid! Stupid! What were you thinking? Saying that your wedding ring is a couple’s ring? I can’t believe I said that!!” 

“Welcome home!” Sakura came and hugged Ritsu as he entered his apartment. Ritsu ruffled Sakura’s hair and took off his shoes. 

“Hey! Food’s in the fridge, I have to get going,” Nao said as soon as Ritsu was done taking his shoes off. 

“Have a good night,” Ritsu said as Nao left. Ritsu heated up dinner, sitting his food at the table and Sakura in a chair as well. They talked about their day. It felt nice to be talking about something else rather than work for once. 

“Papa, I know you’ve been busy with work these past few days, but…” Sakura fidgeted with her pajama pants, “do you think you could read ‘Guri and Gura’ for me tonight?” 

“Of course! Just let me finish dinner first and –” Ritsu looked over to see his fax machine to see it printing something. He got up and looked at it, it was Mutou-sensei’s storyboard. What perfect timing. He didn’t think she’d get it done by today. She really must have pushed through for him. 

“What’s that Papa?”

“It’s a storyboard from one of my new authors. She got it done earlier than expected, I need to look over it tonight.” 

“Oh…” Ritsu heard a disappointing sound in his daughter’s voice. “Then you don’t have to read ‘Guri and Gura’ for me tonight.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Yup!” Sakura smiled. Ritsu kissed his daughter’s forehead, tucking her in for the night. He took Mutou-sensei’s storyboard and started looking it over. About an hour went by and he was getting stuck because of all the corrections. But he wasn’t confident whether or not his judgment was right. He needed help. He really didn’t want to see Takano anymore today, nor did he really want to see him the next day. He sighed and pulled out his cellphone.

“Yes?”

“Takano-san, I’m having a little trouble with Mutou-sensei’s storyboard, I was wondering if…you could help me with it? I could always fax it over and –”

“I live right next door! Just bring the damn storyboard over!” Takano shouted over the phone. 

“Takano-san…But, well…”

“Fine, then I’ll come over there!”

“Please stop! Anything but that!” 

“I’ll be over in 5 seconds.”

“I got it; I’ll bring it over!” He hung up the phone. He couldn’t have Takano over for many reasons, mainly because he didn’t want to make a ruckus and wake up Sakura. But he really didn’t want his boss over at his home. He wanted to just stick to a boss and subordinate relationship. “Man, I really don’t want to see him.” He knocked on Takano’s door.

“Let me see it,” Takano said, taking the storyboards out of Ritsu’s hand.

“Take your time, I can wait in my own apartment. You can call me when you’re finished.”

“Come on! Stop doing everything half-assed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ritsu thought as he entered Takano’s apartment. “When have I ever done anything half-assed!?” He took a seat on Takano’s couch and looked around. It was a lot cleaner and more orderly then he imagined it would be. 

“Alright let’s hear the corrections.” Ritsu and Takano went over the storyboard for a good few hours. They ended up making a lot of changes and Ritsu learned a few things from going over it with Takano, despite wanting to be very far away from him at the moment.

“I do think these changes make it easier to read.”

“Now you just have to run it by the author,” Takano said, getting up and pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Don’t think they’ll accept all these changes.” 

“Was my way of looking at the storyboard okay?” 

“Yes. You have the basics down. But you’re quite the honor student.”

“Huh?”

“Well, right now, the most important thing is for you to get some experience.”

“What does he mean by ‘honor student?’” Ritsu thought, flipping through the storyboard. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Would you like some coffee?” 

“No thanks. I’ve got to call Mutou-sensei, so…” Ritsu started gathering the storyboards and got up. 

“It’s past one in the morning.”

“I’ll just read these through one more time by myself.” Ritsu just wanted to go home, can’t Takano read the atmosphere? Sure, he’s grateful Takano helped with the storyboards but now he just wants to be alone. “Sorry about the late hour.” 

“Hey, tell me something, why are you avoiding me?

“I-I’m not avoiding you…” Ritsu looked down, “I just really want to go home okay? I’m really tired, I’m still adjusting to everything alright. I’m not avoiding you –”

“Are you in love with me?”

“ _Hell no!_ ” Ritsu barked back. “This is how I treat everyone. I like to keep business and private matters separate.” He started to walk towards the door again. “And besides I have a girlfriend…” He shuttered saying that he really didn’t like lying about that. 

“Wow, for a grown man, you sure are one lousy liar.”

“I-I’m not lying! I’m serious!” Ritsu started getting nervous. 

“Then look me straight in the eye and say that again,” Takano said, slamming his hand against the wall, blocking Ritsu with his body. Ritsu first averted his eyes, then look straight at him. 

“I…really, honestly have a girlfriend, so…”

“Liar,” Before Ritsu could act, Takano, pressed his lips onto Ritsu’s. 

_This is bad._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know exactly where I’ll go with Yokozawa and Takano’s relationship. I think I’m going to have it as Yokozawa is already with Kirishima, but he’s wary and protective of Takano when it comes to Ritsu getting close to him. Meaning, Yokozawa, instead of pushing Ritsu back because he was in love with Takano, he’ll be pushing him back to keep Ritsu from breaking Takano’s heart again. 
> 
> Also, I promise there will be more Ritsu and Sakura moments in the future, but at the moment, she’s in the slot of a secondary character but will become the sort of buffer in the story later on. Trust me, there will be more moments with them because I’m dying to write them but until then, she’ll make minor appearances. She becomes a pivotal piece in a future part of the story, and I can’t wait to write it. 
> 
> And one more thing, this also happens to do with why this took so long to write, I finally panned out what going to happen in the next ten chapters. I needed a time frame, along with what’s different with this story and the manga, and what causes Ritsu and Sakura relationship to change. Now that I finally have it settled and hopefully can go off this for a while, I think writing this will go a lot smoother until then. Because, hopefully, once chapter 14 gets done, the whole story does a 180.


	6. This Is Not The Start Of Love!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the severe lack in knowing how to describe things like kissing and such, I’ve never been really good at it which is why this will never be rated anything about a G or K+ rating (plus I’m not comfortable at all writing or depicting NC-17 moments). I’ll try my darndest, so sorry if any of the kissing scenes from here on out is a little weird or lacking in detail. 
> 
> Also, I’m super happy I got to write like one of my favorite scenes that happens in the manga and the anime, which is where Takano and Kisa flip out because of Mutou-sensei’s late manuscript. I always get great joy out of Kisa just rocking back and forth while shouting.

“Then look me straight in the eye and say that again,” Takano said, slamming his hand against the wall, blocking Ritsu with his body. Ritsu first averted his eyes, then look straight at him. 

“I…really, honestly have a girlfriend, so…”

“Liar,” Before Ritsu could act, Takano, pressed his lips onto Ritsu’s. Ritsu’s eyes widen from the shock of Takano suddenly kissing him. He struggled to get free and ended up dropping the storyboards they worked on. He was able to shake him off for a moment. 

“Please stop!” Ritsu choked out before Takano kissed him again. Pressing him against the wall, Takano placed his hands on Ritsu’s arms, locking him in place. 

“This is bad!” Ritsu frantically thought. The sound of Takano’s heavy breath, his rough lips, the bittersweet taste of coffee, was all making Ritsu weak in the knees. He tried shifting his head, which only made Takano delve deeper in Ritsu’s mouth. Ritsu could hear himself moaning softly, his face heating up, _was he actually enjoying this?_ “T-Takano-san,” he shakily breathed out when Takano let up, “I don’t want to.”

“You’re awfully into it for someone who doesn’t.” Takano dove in for another kiss. Ritsu instinctively murmured, his heartbeat increasing. He hadn’t been kissed like this in a long time. Not ever since he and Saga, well Takano now broke up. Not even with An was he like this. Takano started snaking his hand down Ritsu’s chest. 

“S-Stop!” Ritsu was able to kick Takano off him. Takano lost his balance and fell on the ground when Ritsu kicked him. He wouldn’t let Takano go any further than that. He didn’t want that, he didn’t really want the kiss, but if he could prevent anything, it would be Takano touching him any further. “ _I have to leave,_ ” his heartbeat getting increasingly faster, he frantically grabbed the fallen storyboards. He bolted for the front door all while hearing Takano call after him. His eyes started welling up as he opened the door only to come face to face with the guy from the sales department, Yokozawa. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“Huh?” Ritsu stepped aside and Yokozawa came in Takano’s apartment. “Oh, um…” he rubbed his eyes, “w-we had some work to do…” he spoke softly. 

“We went over a storyboard together,” Takano said coming into the genkan. 

“You can’t be serious, at this hour?” 

“Well, what are you doing here then?”

“I told you I’d be stopping on my way home from Kirishima’s. If I don’t show up late, we’d never get to hang out.” Yokozawa lifted the plastic bag labeled “Kumaya Liquor” to insinuate they’d have a drink. 

“Go home, you idiot” Takano turned around, but Yokozawa insisted he’d stay and made his way in. Ritsu, feeling a bit uneasy, what with after that kiss and what might potentially be another argument from these two, decided to try and sneak out. 

“Did he say something to make you upset?” Ritsu stopped to see Yokozawa was talking to him. Why on earth would he ask that? “It doesn’t matter to him whether you’re new or experienced. If you do a half-assed job, he’s going to get you.” Walking further into Takano’s apartment, he added, “so stop with the tears, you’re pathetic.” 

“You’ve got it all wr-”

“What are you two whispering about?” Takano asked, popping his head into the genkan. 

“N-Nothing, excuse me.” Ritsu grabbed ahold of the front door. 

“I’ll call you later.”

“That’s not necessary.” With that, Ritsu fled Takano’s apartment. He quickly unlocked his door and forcefully shut and locked it. He held onto the handle and slid on the floor, gasping for breath. His face feeling hotter than before. Several questions fled in his mind, why would Yokosawa visit this late? And why did Takano let him in? Especially after that kiss… “He came late on purpose, huh? No, now’s not the time. I need to read the storyboard again, and make sure I can explain all the changes to Mutou-sensei.” He slowly made his way to the living room and sat on the floor next to the couch. He curled up, grabbing ahold of his knees, he started to tear up again. “I-I can’t concentrate…”

“Papa” Ritsu heard a soft voice calling for him. He turned his face up, feeling the tears roll down his face. Sakura was standing in front of him. She was clutching a stuffed bear Usami had given her as a parting gift a year ago. She looked scared, her body trembling a bit, tired too. 

“S-Sakura” Ritsu quickly wiped the tears from his face, dropping his knees, “what are you doing up?” 

“P-Papa” Sakura started crying too, she dropped her bear and ran into Ritsu’s chest. “Don’t be sad Papa.”

“H-Hey” Ritsu lifted Sakura’s head up, “why are you crying?”

“B-Because you were crying Papa, why are you sad?” Sakura asked in-between hiccups. Ritsu softly patted her head and pulled her in tightly.

“Papa’s just going through some stuff at the moment,” Ritsu then wiped Sakura’s tears away, “it’s just a little stressful at the moment, alright?” Sakura nodded her head and nuzzled her head against Ritsu’s shoulder, giving him a hug.

“I love you Papa, please do your best.”

“Sakura…” Ritsu hugged her back. She started nodding off. Ritsu got up off the floor, picking her bear up he turned to see his phone buzzing. He shook his head, recalling back to what Takano said, “ _I’m not going to tolerate a half-assed job._ ” He put Sakura in her bed, placing the bear in her arms and pulling up the covers. “I decided a long time ago that…I would never fall in love again with someone like that.” Ritsu kissed her on the forehead and softly whispered, “I only need to love Sakura now.” 

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Oh no, I’m starting to see double” Kisa choked with a burst of nervous laughter. The deadline for all the manuscripts was drawing near, in all actuality, they needed to be in by noon that day. The whole editing department was busy finishing up manuscripts and trying to haggle with the printing company. Ritsu was on the phone with Mutou when – 

“HUH?! Your assistants are all down with the flu?!” Ritsu frantically shouted. Kisa started freaking out when Ritsu shouted that. “One of the helpers brought the virus in?!” Ritsu went to asking if Mutou was alright while Kisa started having a meltdown. 

“Hey, hey, hey!” Takano started shouting, “where the hell is the manuscript?” He started slamming his hand repeatedly on his desk. “Why isn’t it here? We need it right now!” 

“Oh no! We should’ve had her come to Tokyo right away!” Kisa now added to the already chaotic scene in the room. While Hatori looked like he was about ready to give up on life and Mino just stood there, smiling. 

“You’re going to apply all the screen tone yourself now?” Ritsu could barely hear Mutou over all the shouting, “excuse me, but can you all be quiet for a second?!” He shouted at everyone. “Uhm, I think you already know this, but the printing office needs our materials by noon today.”

“Takano!” Another voice shouted in the room. Yokozawa entered the trashy editing department. “I heard our best author’s not gonna make it for this month’s issue. Is this true? If it is, you have to let the financial department know. Hell, you have to let everyone know!” 

“That was fast! He already heard” Kisa whispered.

“Nothing gets by the wild horse” Mino added. Yokozawa whipped his head around, both Kisa and Mino turned away. 

“I’m very sorry,” Mutou apologized profusely over the phone, “but I’m sure I can get it done by tonight. I can definitely be on a plane by five or six this evening and do the tones on the way…” 

“But you can’t take the cutter onboard the plane” Ritsu explained. Mutou-sensei groaned at the realization. “Can you hold on a second.” Ritsu got an idea, he quickly started typing on his keyboard and started searching for plane tickets. “If I go pick up the manuscript and take the six o’clock flight back, I can be at Haneda airport by 8:30 p.m. And If I make the taxi hurry, I should barely make it.” With that thought, he knew what to do. “All right. Please keep on working.”

“Got it!” Mutou said, hanging up the phone. 

“Where does the author live?” Yokozawa asked.

“Hokkaido” Takano answered.

“Are you serious?! You’re never going to make it” Yokozawa mocked. “You have to act fast in a situation like this, or it’ll all just fall apart! Tell her it’s off.”

“You’re right.” 

“Hold on!” Both Yokozawa and Takano’s attention were turned to Ritsu. “Please give me twelve hours to do this! I’ll fly to Hokkaido and be back around 9:00 p.m.” The editing department and surrounding ones gawked at Ritsu’s notion. What a crazy, stupid idea. “I’ll ask the printing office to push back the dead and –”

“Just let it go” Takano brushed Ritsu off, “it’ll never work. There’s no way you can pull it off.” 

“Wait, please! Mutou-sensei’s worked so hard, we can’t just –”

“Onodera” Ritsu winced, he wasn’t getting it across to Takano he could do it. “It doesn’t matter if she’s ‘worked hard.’ It’s not going to be enough this time. Don’t get carried away. In a crisis like this, forget about yourself and face facts. That’s what being an editor is all about.”

“But we can do this!” Ritsu pleaded, “she said she would come to meet at the airport!” 

“You can’t even think about taking an unfinished, white draft without screen tones. Our magazine doesn’t put out that kind of material.” 

“Tell her it’s off” Yokozawa added. “It’s a waste of time.”

“But I’m telling you that I’ll go get it!” Ritsu turned to yell at Yokozawa this time. “If I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t say that I can! I never make promises I can’t keep!” Again, the whole editing department gawked, Ritsu currently had some guts to be able to stand up against the wild horse. 

“Wow, you’re _really_ confident” Yokozawa sarcastically commented. “You’ve got nothing to back that claim up with.” 

“Got it. Get going already. I’ll take responsibility if something goes wrong.”

“Huh?” Ritsu looked at Takano in shock. He’s letting him go?

“I told you to get going!” Takano shouted. Ritsu left in a rush, he’s already running out of time. 

“Have you lost your mind Takano?” Yokozawa complained, “this is a company, not a playground.” 

Ritsu got off the plane and immediately called Mutou when he the terminal. She was already there, waiting for Ritsu to arrive. “Is that you Mutou-sensei? I’m Onodera Ritsu from Marukawa Publishing,” he greeted, running up to her. “It’s nice to meet you face to face.” 

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry you had to come all the way here for this.” Mutou profusely started apologizing. 

“It’s fine really” Ritsu tried calming her down, he noticed she was wearing a mask, a scarf, a hat and what looked like a pretty heavy jacket. He knew it was starting to get cold out, but not to this degree. “That is quite the outfit…”

“I wanted to make sure no germ could get through.” 

“How’s the manuscript coming along?”

“I still have fifteen pages to do. Please help me as much as you can. We need to do the typesetting.” 

Ritsu and Mutou went to a nearby café and started working on the typesetting for the manuscript. This isn’t the first time he’s done typesetting but doing it on his own was a little difficult. “She has huge bags under her eyes. I don’t think she’s slept at all, and her face is really red.” He thought as he picked up a new page. Ritsu studied Mutou’s face. “Her face is red and I’m pretty sure she has a fever. I guess she caught the flu.” 

“Takano-san told me not to get carried away. I know that she’s just reaping what she’s sowed, but…when I see how serious she is, as her editor, I feel I need to do whatever it takes to help her. Am I too soft? What am I thinking? Who’s going to stand by the author if not her editor? But then, if this manuscript gets cut, I’m not the one who’ll have to take the fall. That will be...”

_“I’ll take responsibility if something goes wrong. Get going already!”_

“If this one manuscript drags down the whole magazine, they’re all going to blame him. And as her editor, who couldn’t even do this one thing, I won’t have any right to apologize to him. What’s more, it’s possible he was just being contrary because Yokozawa-san’s his rival.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Mutou started saying. 

“Yes?” Ritsu answered, being pulled out of his thoughts. 

“Your corrections on the storyboard were a huge help.”

“Oh, really?”

“Especially the flow of the panels on this page.” Mutou held up one of the pages, “I only noticed it was off after you pointed it out to me. I think this is the kind of thing only a set of fresh eyes could spot, so I wanted to thank you.”

“I’m glad I could help, but let’s concentrate on finishing this.” Ritsu smiled, but then found himself being sullen again. That correction was actually from Takano, not him. He knew he can’t be perfect right out the gate, but he thought all his enthusiasm wasn’t worth squat. He felt like he did do a “half-assed” job. He looked up to see Mutou started having a small coughing fit. “Are you alright?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Right now, I just have to try and do the best I can.” 

It was nearing nine o clock. Ritsu still wasn’t back at Marukawa. “Takano-san, we can’t wait any longer!” One of the printer workers, Sasaki, exclaimed. Time was out, the deadline wasn’t met. 

“Please accept my apologies. It’s certain that the manuscript is on its way here from Haneda, so could you wait just a little longer?”

“Time’s up” Yokozawa stated. “Cut it.” Takano didn’t answer.

“Just a little longer…”

“No Takano –”

“Excuse me! I’ve got the manuscript” Ritsu shouted while busting through the door. He was panting heavily. He handed off the manuscript to Takano to quickly look over. 

“You’re late! You’re too late!” Sasaki started yelling at Ritsu. 

“I’m really sorry! There was a traffic jam!” 

“The phototypesetting is done? The places we pointed out?” Takano asked while looking over the pages. 

“Yes, everything!”

“What about the final check?”

“Yes! I did it three times!” Takano handed the manuscript off to Sasaki who grabbed it and bolted out of the editing department. “Thank you very much!” Ritsu said while Sasaki fled. Ritsu sighed and turned to the other two men. “I am truly sorry” Ritsu bowed his head. “This is all because I didn’t properly supervise my author. I was too wrapped up in my emotions and made trouble for everybody. This will never happen again.” 

“Oh well, if that’s it I need to get back to work,” Yokozawa said while leaving the room. 

“T-Thank you for your hard work!” Ritsu exclaimed while Yokozawa left. “Did Yokozawa-san stay here to wait for me?”

“Well, it’s his magazine too,” Takano said while taking a seat at his desk. “He takes pride in it.” He lit a cigarette. “But it’s fine, isn’t it? In the end, you got it in.” 

“It shouldn’t have happened though.”

“Well, everyone was acting like it was the end of the world, but I wasn’t worried.” Ritsu turned to face Takano, he wasn’t worried? Yeah right. “It’s not about whether you can or can’t do something when it comes to you. Because once you say you’ll do something, you’ll definitely do it, come hell or high water.” He took a drag, “so I had no reason to worry. That’s what I’ve always loved about you.” Takano got up from his chair, running his fingers through Ritsu’s hair, “good job.” Ritsu heard the door softly click shut. Where Takano had touched him, it ached. He felt his face heat up, Takano seemed to be breaking barriers he didn’t want to be broken. 

“Oh man! Get a grip already!” Ritsu screamed in his head while splashing water on himself in the restroom. “Working in the shoujo manga section doesn’t mean I turn into a fair maiden!” He started rubbing his face furiously with a paper towel only to get startled by Yokozawa in the reflection of the mirror he was standing in front of. “Y-Yokozawa-san, sorry I didn’t see you there. Is there something wrong?” Yokozawa looked like he was scowling more than usual, but then again, Ritsu’s only interacted with this person a few times. 

“You’ve got some guts to come to Marukawa.” The way he said that didn’t sound like a compliment. Sounded more like a threat of some kind. He wasn’t really following. “Did you come here knowing Masamune was working here?” 

“I’m sorry, what are you talking about?” If he had known Takano, as in his old senpai, was working here, he would’ve bolted the second he heard. So, he wasn’t really following Yokozawa’s logic. 

“You do realize that it’s your fault Masamune’s not himself anymore” Yokozawa bitterly stated. What? Seriously just what, what was Ritsu’s fault? What the heck is he trying to say? 

“Um sorry, I really don’t understand…” 

“Just don’t let it go to your head.” Yokozawa headed out of the restroom and Ritsu followed. Yokozawa didn’t really explain much with that statement. It left Ritsu puzzled. What was his fault exactly? 

“What you’re still here?” Ritsu bolted behind the wall of the restroom. Takano was out there.

“Yokozawa-san…” Ritsu looked down at the floor, “…calls Takano-san by his first name.” 

Ritsu had finally left for the evening, he was glad to be getting out of there after a long day. But it also meant he’d have to be with Takano up until they got home. Living next to him was proving to be a bit of a pain, but at least Takano wasn’t trying anything at the moment.

“I’m glad things turned out okay.” 

“I’m sorry for all the trouble.” Takano and Ritsu were looking over some of the manuscripts for this month and discussing future things for next month’s issue. Ritsu got to thinking what Yokozawa had said while in the restroom. What exactly does Yokozawa know? He was a little curious about Takano and Yokozawa’s relationship, like what did they mean to each other? “It’s not like I can really ask Takano about it. I don't really want too either.” He started slowly closing his eyes. He tried shaking the tiredness off, but it didn’t help, the swaying and rattling of the subway train started making Ritsu sleepy. 

“So, I was thinking of making you in charge of the magazine the month after next.” Ritsu didn’t reply. “Onodera, are you listening?” Ritsu drifted off, his head falling onto Takano’s shoulder. It’d been a long day.

_“But if I did ask him, I wonder what he’d say. I wonder…what I’d want to say…”_

Morning rolled around. Ritsu awoke slowly and sat up. “Man, I slept well, what time is it?” He started feeling around for his alarm clock only to touch another person’s arm. That arm happened to belong to Takano. “Takano-san…?” “..!!!” Ritsu shouted, clutching onto the bed sheet. He couldn’t form words from how terrified he was seeing Takano sleeping next to him. 

“Shut up and be quiet already!” Takano shouted. 

“W-Why the hell are we sleeping in the same bed?!”

“Shut up! You fell asleep on the train you idiot! So what? Is this the thanks I get for carrying you all the way home on my back and putting you to bed?” Ritsu’s face turned red a bit. “Do you have any idea how heavy you are?” 

“What am I going to do?!” Ritsu thought as he found his shirt and started putting it on. “I don’t remember a thing!” 

“Shit, it’s still early” Takano angrily said, looking at the alarm clock next to him. 

“I-I’m just asking to make sure, but we didn’t do anything…” Ritsu didn’t want to say what he was thinking. They didn’t do, well, _that_ right? “…weird right?” 

“Define weird.”

“You know exactly what I’m ta –” Ritsu stopped midway. He wasn’t going to answer that. His face started turning redder. Gosh, Takano’s hard to handle. 

“And if there was? If you like me, it’s all good, right?” Ritsu’s face was full on flushed now. 

“I’m leaving! Thanks for looking after me last night!” Ritsu and bolted for the door, déjà vu. “If something like this happens again. Please don’t bother!” He needed to calm down, Takano has to just be pulling his leg, they couldn’t have done anything, right? It wouldn’t make sense. He can’t let Takano provoke him any further! He pulled on his apartment door. “My keys…” Ritsu reluctantly walked back over to Takano’s apartment and pulled the door open, only to have Takano already standing there, holding his bag and jacket. Ritsu immediately pulled it out of Takano’s hand. “I want to make this clear. You seem to have some kind of misconception about me, but I haven’t confessed my love to you. Besides, there’s no way I’d ever fall in love with you!” 

“That’s impossible,” Takano said, taking a drag of his cigarette.

_“Gosh, this guy pisses me off!”_

_This is not love, this is not love, this is not love! This is most definitely not love!_

»»-------------¤-------------««

“That’s the fifth time I’ve called him!” Nao huffed in annoyance, “is his cellphone off or something?”

“When is Papa going to be home?” Sakura asked, coming into the living room. She was already in her pajamas and holding onto her stuffed bear.

“I’m not sure Sakura, why don’t you head off to bed,” Nao started dialing Ritsu’s number again, “it’s past your bedtime.”

“Okay” Sakura sully nodded her head and went off to bed.

“Damn it Ritsu.” Nao hung up his phone and chucked in on the coffee table. “You’re starting to act weird again, this won’t end well.” Nao groaned, lying down on the couch. “Looks like I’m staying here tonight,” he picked up his cellphone, attempting to call the man in question again. “I’ll give him an earful tomorrow morning.”

Morning came and Ritsu still wasn’t home yet. “Alright,” Nao laughed angrily, “where the hell are you Ritsu?!” Ritsu really was testing Nao’s patience. He didn’t mind taking care of Sakura after she was done with school. But in the evening and early morning is for Ritsu to be a father. Nao is not Sakura’s responsibility. He’s been coming home really late in the night lately. “I’ve got a life and a job too.” 

“Uncle Nao?” Sakura said sleepily as she came out of her room, “why are you still here?”

“Ah Sakura, uhm,” Nao sighed, “your dad, he, he had to leave early for work, yeah, so I’ll take you to school today.” He saw Sakura’s face sadden. “Let’s get breakfast started.”

“B-But…” Sakura started saying quietly, “but I want to see Papa. He doesn’t come home at night anymore.” She began sniffling.

“I know sweetie.” Nao kneeled down to her level, “but Papa is still adjusting to his new job. Give him a little more time and soon he’ll be able to spend more time with you, can you do that for him?” 

“Okay” Sakura nodded her head, “I’ll do it for Papa.”

“That’s a good girl.” Nao grabbed her hand, “if we hurry, we can make pancakes, how’s that sound?”

“Okay!” Sakura smiled.

_“Ritsu…this is bad, I know you're still adjusting to your job, but you need to look after Sakura more…we’re going to need to have a serious talk soon…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Genkan are the entryway areas for most houses and apartments. It’s the first thing you usually walk into when entering a home, you take off your shoes there. Just a tibit if you didn’t know what a genkan is, it’s like a hallway in front of the entrance in houses and apartments. 
> 
> Also, if your confused about that last bit, that takes place in between when Takano dragged Ritsu home to his apartment. Because Ritsu’s asleep and ended up sleeping at Takano’s, he never heard his phone go off. So, inevitably, Nao had to watch Sakura the rest of the evening and take her to school because by the time Ritsu would get home, it would already be the time she needed to be at kindergarten. Hopefully that makes sense.


	7. Nothing is Going on Between Takano and Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m very sorry for the delay on this chapter. My family and I had a major situation go on. We sold our house, and the house we put an offer fell through. So, we had to pack quickly and move in with my grandparents for the whole month of June and a few weeks in August. I also went back full time at work, so I didn’t have a lot of free time to sit and write, not to mention some art commissions I did took a while to complete. But, I’m back part time at work and in full time college, so I should be able to update with the next chapter soon, no promises though. Thank you for your patience, please enjoy!

_“Senpai,” Ritsu softly spoke, clutching a book to his chest. There he was, Saga Masamune, sleeping peacefully in a chair at one of the library tables, an open book he left to finish. Ritsu’s heart thumped loudly in his chest. He looked around then slowly approached where Saga was sleeping. He cautiously reached for the open book, turning it to see what Saga had been reading. “‘The Moment the Panda Moved’, so this is what –” Ritsu didn’t have time to finish his thought as he heard Saga murmur. He dashed from the table and went behind one of the bookshelves, his heartbeat still strong. He peered over, “he’s still sleeping,” he thought to himself as his face heated up._

_Ritsu rummaged through the library’s checkout cards for books, looking for any of them with Saga’s name on them. “Ugh…this is kinda…does this…mean that…I’m behaving like…a stalker?” He frantically thought, pulling out a few checkout cards that had Saga’s name on them. “Even if it does, I still love him.” Ritsu just wanted to know more about Saga, even if his means weren’t in the purest way. He knew that doing stuff like this wouldn’t bring him any closer to his Senpai. “But more than anything, I just…I just…love Saga-senpai…”_

“BEEP BEEP”

Ritsu jolted from the jarring sound of his alarm clock. His breath became jagged as he reached over and shut the alarm off. “I can’t believe I dreamt about high school again.” This seemed like an occurring pattern he wasn’t growing accustomed too. He rolled flat on his back and groaned, “what a nightmare.” He slowly got out a bed and stretched. “Why do I keep having these dreams?” He yawned as he walked down the hallway to Sakura’s room. Kneeling next to her bed, he whispered, “wake up Sakura,” while ruffling her hair. 

“Papa?” She answered softly, fluttering her tired eyes. 

“Time to get up.” Ritsu leaned in to kiss her on her forehead. “I’m going to start on breakfast, in the meantime you get dressed.” Sakura nodded as Ritsu left her room.

Sakura came out of her room dressed for the day but still had bedhead. It amazed Ritsu that her hair could stick up so far in the air while being so long. Ritsu chuckled, “maybe it’s time for a haircut?” 

“No! I like my long hair!” She giggled, taking a seat at the table. She also sat a hairbrush and hair tie on the table. “I want my hair to be as long as Mama’s is in her picture on the shrine!” She smiled.

“You’re already so much like her though.” Ritsu thought warmly, placing a plate of eggs on toast for Sakura to eat in front of her. He picked up the hairbrush and tie, “alright, but maybe it’s time for me to show you how to properly brush and put up your hair.” Sakura frowned. “What? Don’t want eggs on toast?”

“I like it when you put it up, Papa.” Sakura’s cheery demeanor changed. Ritsu was taken aback, she’s never acted like this.

“N-Never mind! You’re still a bit too young to be doing it yourself! I’ll keep doing it.” Ritsu frantically sputtered. He didn’t think showing her how to do her hair would make her this upset. Sakura nodded and ate her breakfast. 

It’s the beginning of October, temperatures were already rapidly dropping. Ritsu wrapped a scarf around Sakura’s neck, putting it over her face a bit before heading out. “Papa, the scarfs itchy,” Sakura sneezed. Ritsu snorted and removed the scarf from her face a bit. 

“Ready to head out?” Sakura nodded her head, taking ahold of Ritsu’s hand. While on the train to school, Sakura talked a little about what her class was going to be doing that day. She told him they made sock puppets during art time and were putting on a small show for the teachers. Ritsu softly laughed, “I bet that’ll be cute.” He patted her head, “I bet you’ll have a fun time, I hope one of the teachers records it, so I can see it.”

“What are you going to be doing today Papa?”

“I’ve got a proposal to turn in, I hope it gets accepted since – Oh! That reminds me. Your birthday is next month, you still haven’t told me what you want yet.” 

“I dunno, I can’t think of anything that I want,” Sakura shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe a book?” Ritsu laughed loudly this time. A book? There’s no denying she’s his daughter. Ritsu said that he’ll see what he can do, but to try and think of something else as well. 

“What am I going to do with her?” Ritsu continued to chuckle in his thoughts as he waved goodbye to her as she entered school. “She’s growing up so fast.” 

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Rejected.” Ritsu stood in front of Takano in disbelief. He just handed him the proposal for a new series. Ritsu heard some snickers from Mino and Kisa. Takano only glossed at it, _did the man even read anything?_

“Um, I just gave it to you, could you please actually read it?” 

“I did read it,” Takano handed the proposal back to Ritsu.

“ _Like hell you did!_ ” Ritsu retorted in his thoughts, shoving the proposal back to Takano. 

“What is this proposal supposed to be? You don’t feel like doing it, do you?” 

“Of course I am! This is my first ever comic-related project, and Mutou-sensei’s manga is really popular!” 

“And yet this is the best you can do?” Ritsu took a step back, what’d he mean by it? He worked hard on that proposal. “You say the manga’s popular, yet you haven’t included any survey results to back that up.” Takano pointed at the blank spots on the proposal. “There’s no mention of how you’re going to run the ad campaign, either. Looking at this, you just can’t tell why the book would sell well.” Ritsu shifted his eyes and fidgeted with his hands.

“Well –”

“Onodera!” Takano interrupted. “Do you seriously think that the editor’s job is just to collect manuscripts?” 

“N-No! That’s not what I –”

“I’m aware that you were only editing big names at your last company. You probably got used to anything selling.”

“No! I did not!” 

“You can’t present something like this at the meeting.” Takano handed the proposal back to Ritsu as he got up from his chair. “Do it over.”

“T-Then you should’ve just taught me how to do this beforehand. It’s not like…”

“Huh?” Takano marched over to Ritsu. “You never asked, so why should I go out of my way to teach you something?”

“You’re the editor-in-chief, right? You should at least make sure your employees know –”

“If you have a question, you should ask me yourself! I’m not your mother!” Takano and Ritsu stared angrily at each other. The others in the room felt like they heard a rumble just from the two. A bitter atmosphere. 

“I think you guys ought to deepen your friendship.” One of the neighboring editors whispered to Kisa and Mino. 

“What do you mean? We’re all pals!” Kisa happily replied, as if that whole show was just a normal occurrence.

Nighttime had already begun to fall, what a waste of the day. Ritsu was currently stuck trying to rewrite his previous proposal. Writing it the first time was difficult enough, but a second time? Geez. He glanced over at the time, “better call Nao to tell him I’ll be a little late tonight.” He dialed Nao’s number and stepped out of the office. “Nao? I’m going to be a little late coming home tonight; I might not be back before Sakura goes to bed. Is that alright?”

“That’s fine, you sure have been coming home later than usual, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, just something with work came up and it’s taking more time than I thought to fix, I’m sorry.” Ritsu hung up the phone and went back to work. Kisa packed his things and left for work, saying his goodbyes when Ritsu came back in. “I’m screwed.” Ritsu stared blankly at his computer screen. “What should I do to make this better? It’s true that we used to do things differently at my last job. What do you even do for promoting manga? A fair? I guess I have no choice but to ask Takano-san…no way! Like I’d ever ask him for help!” Ritsu typed furiously on his laptop. “I’ll figure it out myself!” 

“Huh, you’re still here?” 

“Takano-san?” Ritsu was surprised to see him still there. “I-I thought you’d left already.” 

“I’ve got manuscripts to read.” Takano placed his bag at this desk. Sipping his coffee, he peered over to see what Ritsu had been typing. “You’re still writing the proposal?”

“Oh, don’t mind me.” Ritsu tried to ignore the comment, starting to type again on his laptop. “You can head on home.” 

“Let me see,” Takano placed his coffee on Ritsu’s desk. 

“I’m perfectly fine without your help. I can do this myself.”

“No seriously let me see.”

“I said I’m fine!” Ritsu spun his chair to try and get Takano to leave. In the process, he bumped Takano’s coffee with his elbow. “Ah!” Ritsu went to grab it but Takano already had caught it. Ritsu ended up placing his hand on top of Takano’s. Ritsu stood there for a second in disbelief then jerked his hand back. 

“That was close.”

“You don’t have to worry about me. You can go home; you’re going to miss the last train!” Takano grabbed a neighboring chair and brought it over to sit next to Ritsu. “Wh-What are you doing? I told you, I’ll do this myself!” 

“Liar. You haven’t gotten anything done yet.” 

“Really, I’m fine!” 

“Come on!” Takano leaned in closer. 

“Don’t come so close!” Ritsu pleaded in his thoughts. He fixated his eyes on his computer to try and not show Takano how red his face was becoming. His hands were becoming shaky as his heart started to beat faster. Why’d he always become so nervous whenever Takano was around? 

“Do you have the results of Mutou-san’s poll with you?”

“Huh? U-Uh, yes.” 

“Did you see how she’s always in the top three ever since she became a regular?” Ritsu spouted a faint agree. “What are the sales figures for the works by the authors in front and behind her? Compared to those, how many do you think you can sell?”

“Huh?”

“Who’s your target audience? How is it different from the manga she’s produced until now?” Wait slow down! Takano was asking way too many questions at once for Ritsu to process. “How do you want to promote it? What about flyers? And the point-of-purchase?” 

“W-Wait!” Ritsu scrambled for a pen, “slow down, please! I need to write this down!” 

“There are other things to consider too, like what you’re going to show on the wrap. And…” Ritsu listened to what Takano had to say and was diligently writing down everything. Ritsu was finally getting sound advice, from Takano of all people. “You get all that?”

“Yes. I’ll rethink what materials I need.” Ritsu finished writing down his notes, “and then I’ll…” He turned over to see Takano’s hand reach out for him. Before he knew what was happening, Takano pulled Ritsu to steal a kiss. “ _EH?_ ” Ritsu struck Takano on the head. “What the hell are you doing?!” Ritsu shouted in a frantic matter. 

“What do you mean?” Takano rubbed his head, “you were comically serious. I had to snap you out of it.” 

“What?” That didn’t make much sense to Ritsu. He was seriously trying to get his work done! Was it that necessary to distract him like that?! He had finally begun to focus on the proposal! “Can you please stop fooling around? I’m trying to do my job seriously!” Ritsu yelled at Takano, his face becoming even more flushed then earlier. Immediately after shouting, Ritsu heard the sounds of footsteps coming closer. He quickly turned around to see Yokozawa standing in front of him. “Yokozawa-san…” 

“Masamune,” Yokozawa chose to ignore making any form of a reply to Ritsu, “the chief of sales wants to talk to you about Chiharu Yoshikawa’s TV series. You should go see what he wants.” 

“Uh, I’m going to use the restroom.” Ritsu scurried out of the Emerald Department room. 

“His editor, Hatori-san, has already left.” 

“It doesn’t matter.” Takano huffed.

“Man, what a bother.” Takano got out of his chair and started leaving the room. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Takano glared at Yokozawa. Yokozawa matched his expression. 

“Where do I need to go?”

“The lounge.” 

Ritsu emerged from the restroom, trying not to think of what just happened. He hoped that Yokozawa hadn’t witnessed what Takano had done. It would’ve been a nightmare if Yokozawa saw Takano kissing Ritsu. Ritsu went back to his department and looked around to see if Takano was still there or not. “Everybody’s gone right now, right? I’ll just organize my materials, and then I’m gone,” Ritsu thought to himself as he started to gather his papers. 

“Hey.” Yokozawa broke the silence in the room. That startled Ritsu, he didn’t even see Yokozawa in the room!

“H-Hello! I thought you left with Takano-san?”

“I was waiting for you.” What? Waiting for him? That doesn’t make much sense. “I’m only going to say this once.” Yokozawa continued.

“Yes?” 

“Stay away from Masamune.” Ritsu looked at Yokozawa in disbelief. What in the world was that supposed to mean?

“Um…I think you’ve misunderstood something. Nothing is going on between me and Takano-san –”

“You’re such a bad liar.”

“I’m not lying! I’m not!” Ritsu started to become frantic. He wasn’t quite sure what Yokozawa was saying. There wasn’t anything going on between him and Takano. In truth, it was all Takano’s doing! “Um…Yokozawa-san…” He heard a ringtone of a cellphone.

“Hello? Okay, I see. Got it. I’ll be right there.” Yokozawa hangs up and starts getting up from the chair he was in. 

“Please listen to me. There seriously nothing –” Yokozawa gets close to Ritsu’s face, cutting him again. 

“If you’re telling me the truth, then don’t entice him.” Yokozawa started leaving the office.

What the hell? “Wait a minute, Yokozawa-san!” Ritsu shouted after him. There’s nothing going on… “This must be some kind of mistake. I…” …between Ritsu and Takano. Besides, from the look of things, Takano seems to have something for Yokozawa.

The reality of that thought hit Ritsu, _hard_. Takano and Yokozawa were on a first-name basis, with no honorifics on top of that! They go drinking together and Yokozawa even came over that one time when it was way too late at night. It must be true then.

“It’s…It’s not really…any of my business who Takano-san has a thing for or who he might be dating.” Ritsu collected his thoughts and papers to leave for the day. He headed for the transit station. He started thinking about the situation as he walked. It didn’t matter if Takano is going out with a man or a woman. Ritsu let out a prolonged sigh. “I have to explain things to Yokozawa-san next time I see him. It’ll cause trouble if he goes under some weird delusion about me and Takano-san.” He sighed again, “I mean…I was in love with him, but that was ten years ago. Even if Yokosawa-san somehow knows that it doesn’t matter anymore.” Getting caught up in thought again, the last train sounded for its departure. “ _Shit!_ The last train!” Ritsu bolted for it but was met with the door closing.

“Oh, man…this sucks,” Ritsu huffed, placing his hands on his knees. It looks like he’ll have to catch a cab. “Besides, Takano-san only made a pass at me because he enjoys teasing me. I’m nothing but a nuisance to him.” He grabbed at his chest. What exactly was this feeling? “And yet…I’m really…”

“…pissed off.” Ritsu returned home. He hoped that either Takano was already home or still at work so he wouldn’t run into him. Nevertheless, Ritsu was able to avoid him. “Welcome home,” Nao said, already standing in the genkan. 

“Oh? Nao, ah – I’m home,” Ritsu nervously laughed. “T-Thanks for staying a little later today, I missed the last train.” He explained while getting on the floor to take his shoes off. “I’m sorry about that.” He looked over at Nao, who had a slight scowl on his face. “Did I upset you?”

“No,” Nao sighed, placing a hand on his forehead. “You’ve just been coming home later than you usually do. You never came home this late when you worked at your father’s company.” 

“ _What are you? My wife now?_ ” Ritsu mimicked Nao’s scowl. “Look, it’s just been hard adjusting to working with manga now.” Ritsu got off the floor, “once I get better adjusted, I’ll be able to come home sooner.”

“It’s been two months Ritsu. Look, I’m not trying to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do, but as a friend, you probably shouldn’t be working these hours.” Nao sighed again, putting more emphasis this time. “I hate that I have to keep telling Sakura you won’t be home when she goes to bed. Not to mention you probably aren’t getting much sleep either.” Nao got up closer to Ritsu, placing a hand on Ritsu’s cheek. “Plus, I can tell there’s something else bothering you.”

“Stop it.” Ritsu smacked Nao’s hand away. “It won’t be for much longer.” Ritsu walked further into his apartment. “You can go home now Nao, thank you.” 

“Tsk.” Nao gathered his coat and left. 

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Takano-san and Yokozawa-san?” Ritsu had run into Hatori early while they were heading into Marukawa. Because of the events that had happened last night, Ritsu was curious to know if Hatori had any information on their relationship. Ritsu felt it was odd how friendly they were to each other despite Yokozawa seeming to a jerk, more of a jerk than Takano. “I seem to remember hearing that they had classes together in college.” They had classes in college together? “Apparently Yokozawa-san was the one to suggest the publishing business to Takano-san. What’s more, Yokozawa-san convinced Takano-san to change jobs and come work for Marukawa. Or that’s what I’ve heard anyway.” 

“Oh, I see.”

“I guess you could say that they definitely get along. They’re probably very compatible.” So, Ritsu’s theory might not be far off then. Yokozawa and Takano are probably dating. Ritsu’s heart clenched at the thought of that. “Sorry, but that’s all I know.”

“No, that’s plenty!” Ritsu waved his hands. “I’m sorry I asked you such a weird question in the first place,” he apologized. They both were about to get on the elevator when Takano came up behind them. Ritsu jolted a bit, hoping he didn’t hear any of his and Hatori’s conversation. He chose to ignore what Takano and Hatori were discussing until he saw Hatori leave the elevator. “Wai – Hatori-san!” He watched the elevator doors close; he was now stuck in the elevator with Takano, _alone._

“You can’t even say good morning to me properly, can you?” Takano broke the silence, agitation in his voice. 

“Huh, I thought I did” Ritsu annoyingly responded. 

“I heard no such thing, doesn’t count if I didn’t hear it.”

“GOOD MORNING!” Ritsu shouted angrily. 

“Morning.” Ritsu begged the elevator to move faster, he wanted to get off the elevator, _now_. He didn’t want to be alone with him, that’s what he’s been trying to avoid. “Onodera.” Ritsu felt a hand caress his hair. He instinctively slapped Takano’s hand away. “You had something in your hair.”

Ritsu stared blankly at him, his face quickly turning red. “Huh?” He heard the elevator ding and the doors opened. He bolted quickly out of there, ignoring Takano’s call after him. “I don’t want to have anything more to do with Takano-san outside of office hours.” Ritsu frantically thought as he rushed to the Emerald Department. He hated this. All of the things he thought that shouldn’t matter were pissing him off. “If I have any more contact with him, I’ll have to admit to myself…”

“…just how much he can get to me…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about going ahead and doing the second part of the manga with Saeki, but that would’ve dragged this out longer than I would’ve liked. And hopefully, I’ll be able to add more Ritsu and Sakura moments in the next chapter too like in this one. Also, I’m going to be working on the cover art for this too, I hope I can get it done before you know, I finish the story, which is a scary possibility for me. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I’ll be going on Fall Break here soon, so I’ll probably be writing the next chapter while I’m on break. (I’ve got finals for my two of my 8-week classes here in two weeks and need to focus on those).


End file.
